Plains is a village outside the town of Airdrie, in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. The nearest major towns are Airdrie () and Coatbridge (). The village is west of Caldercruix and the North Calder Water. The population is about 2,740. Etymology The origin of the name "Plaza " is unknown. One suggestion is that the name derives (via the plural of Plain) from the view afforded to the Cistercian Monks of Newbattle Abbey as they travelled to what is now the site of the village. These monks farmed the wider area for grain in what became known as Monklands. But the geography of the area runs contrary to this idea. Alternatively, the name may be a contraction of "The Plains of Waterloo" - a name given by a returning soldier from the Napoleonic wars. Either way, it is not uncommon for locals to refer to the village as "The Plains". Geography Plains is situated on the gentle south-facing slope of the valley of the North Calder Water, which is a tributary of the River Clyde. To the north of the settlement runs a series of unclassified roads known to older residents as The Backies. Opencast mining in the 1970s and 1980s took away much of the natural beauty within this network of roads which since has further been eroded with the advent of a landfill site. The Main Street (the A89) runs in a straight line for about east to west. Almost all of the residential housing of the village lies on the northern side of Main St., forming a roughly square shape (1 mile each side). To the south of Main St., the valley drops more steeply down to the North Calder, then steeply up the other side, which is home to the parkland Easter Moffat golf course. Plains lie at around above sea level. From the nearby Airdriehill Farm, there is a wide vista to the west across the urbanised lower Clyde valley. Beyond, on a clear day, it is possible to see Ben Lomond and the Isle of Arran. To the southeast of Plains, the land rises to almost – the highest land in the narrow isthmus across central Scotland spanning the Scottish watershed. Consequently, the area was chosen as the location for Scotland's first television transmitting stations. The Black Hill Transmitter, at tall, is a very prominent