Leadhills, originally settled for the accommodation of miners, is a village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, 5+3⁄4 miles (9.3 km) WSW of Elvanfoot.

The area covered by the grouse moors has been identified as a location of several wildlife crimes involving raptor persecution.

Reputed to be 137 years of age at the time of his death, Taylor's grave (shared with his son, Robert) even attracted the attention of the BBC.

Since the 1920s skiing in the Leadhills area has been organised intermittently by a succession of local residents as well as several non-for-profit sports clubs.

The minerals lanarkite, leadhillite, caledonite, susannite, plattnerite, scotlandite, macphersonite, chenite and mattheddleite were first found at Leadhills.

[18] The area is renowned amongst mineralogists and geologists for its wide range of different mineral species found in the veins that lie deep within the (now abandoned) mine shafts;[19] with some[which?]

16th-century mining entrepreneurs working the area were landowners, goldsmiths and metallurgists, granted patents by the monarch and Privy Council.

In 1720 a Dutch traveller, Hugh Kalmeter, described the mine workings and noted that exported ore was used for pottery glazes.

[29] In a paper reporting on the treatment of a particular case of hydrothorax, published in 1823, James Braid commented that, given all of the theoretically possible causes, with his numerous Leadhills hydrothorax patients, "[those who] have been exposed to breathe noxious or confined air" were by far the majority:[30] Like many metalliferous miners in other parts of the British Isles in the early 1800s, Leadhills miners did not work for daily wages;[32] in fact, Leadhills miners lived rent-free, working no more than six hours in any one day and, significantly, had no fixed working hours.

At Leadhills, each miner belonged to an autonomous group of up to 12 (a "partnership"),[33] who were paid collectively: on the basis of a contract (a "bargain") struck between one partner (the "taker") and the mining company, to perform a specific task for an agreed payment — in other words, the miners were paid for their results; not for the time they spent underground.

[34] There were two types of bargain: The individual miner's family also contributed; the sons worked on the uncovered washing platforms (exposed to the elements in all weathers) washing the impurities from the ore prior to smelting, and the wives and daughters spun wool and embroidered muslin for sale in Glasgow.

In the winter of 1765, James Watt had been approached to design and build a steam engine for Leadhills that would raise water from 30 fathoms (approx.

A most melancholy accident happened in the lead mines belonging to Messrs Horner, Hurst, and Co. Leadhills, on the forenoon of the 1st inst.

occasioned by the air being rendered impure from the smoke of a fire engine, placed about one hundred feet underground.

It was later established that noxious fumes from the faulty chimney of a coal-fired steam engine,[37] operating deep within the mine,[38] had combined with a dense fog pervading the entire area.

Near to the cemetery overlooking a row of miners' cottages is an 1891memorial in obelisk form was erected to William Symington, by public subscription, where he was born.

[42][43] Allan Ramsay, the poet, and William Symington (1763–1831), one of the earliest adaptors of the steam engine to the purposes of navigation, were born at Leadhills.

Due to its elevation and inland position, winters are colder and summers cooler than lower lying areas.

In terms of the local climate profile, given its elevated position and latitude, Leadhills is amongst the coldest places in the British Isles.