Biggar is a town as well as former burgh in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is situated in the Southern Uplands, near the River Clyde, on the A702. The closest communities are Lanark as well as Peebles, and also because of this Biggar serves a large rural area. The population of the town at the 2011 census was 2294 although by the mid-2014 price quote it had actually grown to 2320. The town was when served by the Symington, Biggar as well as Broughton Railway, which ranged from the Caledonian Railway (currently the West Coastline Main Line) at Symington to join the Peebles Railway at Peebles. The station as well as signal box are still standing but housing has been improved the line running west from the station as well as the railway running eastern from the station is a public footpath to Broughton, part of the Biggar Country Path network. The new Biggar & Upper Clydesdale Museum run by the Biggar Museum Trust opened up in 2015 and also the Biggar Gasworks Museum is the only preserved gas works in Scotland. Additionally, Biggar has Scotland's only long-term puppet theatre, Biggar Puppet Theatre, which is run by the Purves Puppets household. Biggar was the birthplace of Thomas Gladstones, the grandfather of William Ewart Gladstone. Hugh MacDiarmid invested his later years at Brownsbank, near the town. Ian Hamilton Finlay's house and also yard at Little Sparta is nearby in the Pentland Hills. The imaginary Midculter, which includes in Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles stories, is set here. The town holds a yearly arts event, the Biggar Little Celebration. The community has actually typically held a massive bonfire at Hogmanay. In 2007 neighborhood estate representative John Riley, motivated a group of Biggar citizens to launch the Carbon Neutral Biggar task, with the mentioned purpose of ending up being the very first carbon neutral community in Scotland. The launch of the task, covered in both local and also national media, happened at the town's yearly eco discussion forum in May 2007. The team has actually created relate to the town of Ashton Hayes in Cheshire, which has a similar team pursuing carbon neutral standing for the town. This community has 2 schools, one main, and one secondary. The senior high school, Biggar Senior high school, also admits students from surrounding small towns as well as towns. Biggar Primary is a small school, situated on South Back Road, with an existing roll of 238 students. Primary students have lunch just offsite in the Biggar Main Sports Barn. The Senior high school, situated on John's Loan and adjacent to the primary, shares its sporting activities facilities with the primary school when the celebration demands it. The yearly key Sports Day is held on the Senior high school playing field.