Coulter, South Lanarkshire

Coulter or Culter is a small village and civil parish in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It lies approximately 3mi south of Biggar. Some old maps and local modern houses also have the spelling Cootyre - " a safe place for cows."Nearby are two notable Scottish hills, Tinto and Culter Fell. The River Clyde is also nearby. Coulter Village at Culter House is on the watershed between the Clyde and the Tweed.The village has a mill which has since been converted to a restaurant. The second recorded Mill some time about 1880. The site of the first since the burn, Culter Water, was diverted to its present course is unknown.The village is the likely location of the fictional Midculter from Dorothy Dunnett's 6 book series The Lymond Chronicles. Within that series, Midculter is the home of the Crawford Barons of Culter and of the protagonist, Francis Crawford of Lymond. A possible location for their castle, Midculter Castle, is Coulter Motte.Coulter Motte lies some distance from the village on the side of the Clyde at Wolf Clyde, it is a small lump of ground adjacent to the river at a point where it is diverted by ditch toward the Tweed, to alleviate the flood water. Some enterprising person in the past had the idea of fully diverting the waters of the Clyde at this point toward the Tweed. It does not accommodate the descriptions in the Books of the Lymond Series of avenue of Trees, and surrounding hillsides- mention of the closeness to the major River do not appear.