The Lanimer Committee met on Wednesday 21st April to discuss proposals for this year’s Lanimer Celebrations, now rescheduled for Saturday 4th September. With the current positive moves in terms of easing of COVID restrictions and the successful rollout of vaccinations, the committee have agreed on an approach to celebrating this year’s Lanimers in the fullest way possible, within the limits of any restrictions that may be in place on this date.

The following arrangements are set out on the basis of the current roadmap out of lockdown being successfully delivered and that limits on numbers public gatherings are eased from our current position.

**Please note that the Lanimer committee are also preparing fallback alternatives to the arrangements below, should restrictions or permissions not permit these events to go forward**

Lead up to Lanimers

As with recent tradition, we will be encouraging the decoration of gardens for members of the Lanimer Queen’s Court. We will also be encouraging members of the community to decorate their houses and help celebrate our unique 2021 Lanimer Celebrations . In addition to the court Lanimer Court gardens, a number of past Lanimer Queens and Crowning Ladies will be decorating their houses with decorated crowns and balloon arches respectively.

For those who are looking to decorate their gardens in this year’s Lanimer Colours, we are pleased to advise that these have been chosen by Lanimer Queen Elect Lacey as;

Lanimers, 4th September 2021

Our Lanimer Celebration will try to closely follow our traditional event, but with some modifications to account for likely social distancing restrictions.

The day itself will be split into three main parts;·

• The Lanimer Costume Parade
• The Crowning of the Lanimer Queen
• Queen Lacey’s Garden Party

The Lanimer Costume Parade

A parade this year will start at St Leonard Street at 10.30am, proceeding to the High Street and then to Castlebank Park via the Castlegate. The parade will be led by our Champion Mackenzie Curran and First & Second Lords. The parade will not include any Lanimer Lorries, but we are encouraging entrants to participate in a costume parade, with a theme of their choosing.

The parade will lead the Lanimer Queen elect Lacey Holmes and her court to the Crowning Ceremony, taking place in Castlebank Park.

The Crowning of the Lanimer Queen

The parade will arrive at Castlebank park, where Lanimer Queen elect will be crowned by Mrs Sharon Hamilton. This will take place at 12 Noon. The selection of Castlebank for the crowning allows for appropriate social distancing for spectators, which could not be achieved at Lanark Cross. The use of Castlebank also gives us a wonderful location to hold our unique event for 2021, the “Lanimer Queen’s Garden Party”.

Queen Lacey’s Garden Party

Following the Crowning Ceremony, our newly Crowned Lanimer Queen Lacey will host a Garden Party within Castlebank Park. With a nod back to more distant Lanimers, the Lanimer Queen Lacey will present all entrants in the procession with their Lanimer medal. A marquee will be available, and we hope to have a variety of stalls selling local produce. We are looking to encourage a family picnic atmosphere within the beautiful surroundings of Castlebank Park where we also aim to provide family entertainment within our events arena.

Our afternoon will culminate in presentations to the Lanimer Queen and her Crowning Lady. We hope that this unique Lanimer event will provide some very special memories for all involved. As a Committee, we are committed to providing a very special day despite the unprecedented circumstances we find ourselves in.

All events will be delivered with strict adherence to COVID restrictions and will be subject to change should the current recovery from the pandemic deteriorate.

We always welcome new members to the Lanimer Committee who can bring their support and talents to help in our hard working team. Should you wish to become part of our committee, details on how to join can be found HERE

We optimistically look forward to once again having a very Happy Lanimers!

We hope all our friends and supporters are safe and well in these difficult times.

At 8.15pm this evening, and every coming Thursday over the next 6 weeks, we will be taking a look back down ‘Lanimer Memory lane’ with the Premiere of a recently digitised video of Lanimer Day from the the 1980’s on wards.

Over the next 6 Thursdays, a “new” video will be released every at 8.15pm on the lead up to what would of been our now cancelled Lanimer Week 2020.

We hope these nostalgic memories from the 80’s, 90’s and ‘noughties’ will bring some comfort to our followers in these difficult times.

First up is a trip back 35 year as we take a ‘lockdown look back’ at Lanimer Day 1985.

Our Lanimer Queen Cheryl Reilly was Crowned by Miss Grizel Rankin. Our Lanimer Procession was led by Lord Cornet John Armstrong.

Shown below is a scan of the original pull-out from the 1985 Lanimer Brochure detailing all the entries in the Procession. How many can you remember?

Stay tuned till the very end of the video – there is a special extra of the National news coverage of the day; something that used to happen every year! A huge thanks to Cheryl’s Mum and Dad, Joy and Brian for helping us with this footage!

Do you spot anyone in the procession, court or crow that you recognise? If so – please feel free to share this vidoe share with them!

Have you any special memories of Lanimer Day 1985 – If so, we would love you to share them with us via our social media pages.

Remember – the link below goes live at 8.15pm tonight (30th April 2020), we hope you enjoy!

Please check out our Official YouTube channel for lots more Lanimer content

Lanark Lanimer Committee Executive met on Wednesday evening, 18 March 2020, to take decisions on behalf of the Lanimer Committee regarding the impact of the current COVID-19 crisis on Lanark’s 2020 Lanimer celebrations.

We appreciate that the latest advice published by the Scottish and UK Governments on COVID-19, and the limiting of social contact has profound implications for our community activities. With that in mind Lanark Lanimer Committee has taken the difficult decision to cancel all Lanimer Events for 2020.

We feel that this is the only course of action open at this time, to protect our precious community. We understand also the pressure on our vital emergency services and believe also that to reschedule activities would put additional strain on their resources.

We realise that you were looking forward to June, as we were, and will have put many plans in place but, as you know, the situation is totally outwith our control. All principals for 2020, including our Lord Cornet-elect, Crowning Lady, Sashing Lady and the Lanimer queen-elect and her court will carry forward to 2021.

We would hope that all of the above will take part in 2021 celebrations and shall issue details concerning this in due course, along with plans for 2021 celebrations.

We hope everyone in our community stays safe through this crisis and shall keep you up to date later in the year.

Ex-Lord Cornet John Dickman, Chair of Lanark Lanimer Committee, and all its members.