Image above Torrance Tower or House, Courtesy of Scottish Castles Association Image right - Ruins of Carmichael House Geograph © Copyright Alan O'Dowd and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.

Historic Buildings of Lanarkshire

Historic County of Scotland

Now North and South Lanarkshire

The object of this project is to provide information about historic buildings in the county of Lanarkshire, with links to sub-projects for specific buildings as appropriate. GENi profiles of people associated with those establishments can be linked to this project and/or to individual projects where they have been set up.

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Historic Buildings of Lanarkshire

... in alphabetical order

Including Castles, Abbeys, Manor Houses, Mansions, Stately Homes, Country houses, Estate houses, Courts, Halls, Parks and other listed buildings of historic interest

Full sizes of the thumbnail images can be seen in the Gallery attached to the project or by clicking the thumbnail image. TIP - Use ctrl+the link to open the image in a separate tab, or use "back" to return to this project page) Sources for the images can be found in the image details as seen in the gallery.

Names with Bold links are to Geni profiles or projects. Other links take you to external biographical web pages. Please copy and paste the bullet used - ● - instead of * when adding items to the list.

A

● Abington motte

● Annieston Tower

● Auld Machan Castle

B

● Barncluith

● Bedlay Castle

● Bellahouston House

● Belstane Tower

● Biggar Castle

● Bishop’s Palace

● Boghall Castle

● Boghouse Castle

● Bothwell Castle

Image right - By Bert Kaufmann licensed under the Creative commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

A large, medieval castle originally built in the late 13th century by the ancestors of Clan Murray, to guard a strategic crossing point of the Clyde. Bothwell played a key role in Scotland's Wars of Independence, changing hands several times. King David I granted the barony of Bothwell to David Olifard (or Olifant), Justiciar of Lothian, in the mid 12th century. The lands passed to his descendants and by 1252 the barony became the property of Walter de Moravia, or Walter of Moray, who had married the last Olifard baron's heir. He began construction of the castle, but by the start of the Wars of Scottish Independence in 1296, only the main donjon, the prison tower, and the short connecting curtain wall were completed.Archibald Douglas, 3rd Marquess of Douglas
● Bower of Wandel

C

● Cadder Castle

● Cadder motte

● Cadzow Castle

● Calderwood Castle

● Cander

● Cardonald Castle

● Carmichael House

Image right Landed Families Blog

The Carmichaels held the lands from the 13th century and in 1710 there was a "good substantious old house, much repaired and well finished of late, very well planted, with a noble avenue from the house to the church". This house was demolished by John Carmichael, 3rd Earl of Hyndford (1701-67), who built the five-bay two-storey west wing of an intended new house in about 1754 and the matching east wing shortly before his death; his architect is unknown. The main block that would have connected them was never built, but instead a long connecting corridor was built, with a central tower pavilion. The house was occupied into the 20th century, but was unroofed in 1954-55. It now stands as a consolidated shell in the middle of a commercial forestry plantation. In the 1980s, the house was inherited by an accountant from New Zealand who established his claim to be chief of the Carmichael clan and pledged 'to restore the capot of my barony of Carmichael and the spiritual heartland of all Carmichaels worldwide' so that it will again become 'a modern baronial house for the future chiefs of Carmichael for the next few hundred years'. Since then, the plans have become a little more realistic, and in the mid-1990s there were plans for converting the house into holiday accommodation. However nothing has been done and the house is now on the buildings at risk register.

● Carnwath House

● Carnwath Mill

● Carnwath motte

● Carstairs Castle

● Castle Brocket

● Castle Hill

● Castle Hill motte

● Castlehill

● Castlemilk

● Cathcart Castle

● Comyn’s Castle

● Cormiston Tower

● Corra Castle

● Cot Castle

● Coulter motte

● Couthalley Castle

● Covington Tower

● Cowlairs House
The house was built in 1824. The Cowlairs estate belonged to Alexander Williamson of Petershill in the mid-18th century, and he built a house there. It passed through many hands before it was acquired by the distiller John Gourlay in 1813, and he built a new mansion in front of the older house. The distiller is commemorated in the name Gourlay Street.

The Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway crossed the Cowlairs estate when it opened in 1842 and the company built its engineering works there. The North British Railway Co acquired the E & G in 1865, and Cowlairs became the largest railway works in Scotland. The works closed in 1969.

The partnership of Brown, Gourlay & Co, distillers, of Glasgow, Scotland began trading in 1813. The partnership was dissolved in 1818 and the business continued, but under the name of john Gourlay & Co. In 1833 John Gourlay snr left the partnership and John Gourlay jnr left three years later in 1835. When Robert Gourlay died in 1841 the partnership was once more dissolved, although business carried on under the same name. In 1877 John Gourlay & Co amalgamated with M MacFarlane & Co, who were the other major distiller in Port Dundas, Glasgow . Together they became part of the Distillers Company Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland, that same year. The Distillery was badly damaged by fire in 1903 , but was quickly rebuilt. In 1966 the business transferred to Scottish Grain Distillers Ltd, Edinburgh, and rebuilding was carried out from the mid–1960s.

References

• https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1078036 and https://canmore.org.uk/site/167786/glasgow-cowlairs-house
• https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSB00253
• http://www.glasgowwestaddress.co.uk/Old_Country_Houses/Cowlairs.htm

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● Craigneith Castle

● Craignethan Castle

● Crawford Castle

● Crawfordjohn Castle

● Crookston Castle

● Crossbasket Castle is a fairly typical oblong tower, dating probably from the early 16th century, to which a large Victorian mansion has been added. It is rubble-built and harled, rising three storeys to a parapet with a garret storey above. This storey has dormer windows with triangular pediments. Most of the other windows have been enlarged. The SE angle of the parapet walk is interrupted by a square caphouse of unusual design, projecting slightly on continuous corbelling, finished with modern cancellations http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/44859/details/crossbasket/

○ Purchase of Crossbasket

○ Thomas Peter purchased the lands of Crossbasket from the eventual heirs of John Baillie of Park, one half from Matthew Cumming, junior, and the other half from Cumming's cousin, Margaret Scott, the wife of James Muir, merchant in Glasgow. According to the late Donald Whyte, sasine was given on 28 November 1709 [Donald Whyte, Notes on the Peter Family of Crossbasket, published in the Newsletter of the Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society (No. 44, Autumn 1995), page 4].but this is the date upon which the sasines were registered at Hamilton. Matthew Cumming's disposition in favour of Thomas Peter was signed at Glasgow on 25 June 1708 and 28 June 1708 . Thomas Peter, younger, merchant in Glasgow, acting as procurator for his elder namesake, took sasine on 12 November 1708 and the deed was registered on 28 November 1709. The lands of Crossbasket are described as follows: "All and Haill the said Matthew Cumming his just and equall halfe of all and haill the mill and lands of Corsebasket, mill lands, multures and sequells throf, Manor place, houses, biggings, yeards, orcheards, woods, meadows, muirs, marishes and haill pertinents throf qtsomever lying within the barony of Hamilton by annexation Dukedome & Regality throf and sheriffdome of Lanerke" [National Archives of Scotland, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh, Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark, reference RS42/12/25r-26r]. Margaret Scott's disposition of her half share of Crossbasket was signed on 2 November 1709 [National Archives of Scotland, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh, Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Lanark, reference RS42/26r-26v].

○ Sale of Crossbasket

○ Lieutenant-General Thomas Peter of Crossbasket, with the consent of his second wife, Barbara Cunningham, sold the lands and estate of Crossbasket, Auchentibber, and Drumlochernock, under burden of several heritable debts amounting to eleven thousand, one hundred and fifty pounds, to Charles MacIntosh, merchant in Glasgow. The General's disposition, made in favour of MacIntosh, is dated 21 August 1818 [National Archives of Scotland, H.M. General register House, Edinburgh, Lanarkshire Sasine Abridgements for 1818, abridgement number 8796, which cites G.R. 1105.245].

D

● Dalzell House

● Darngaber Castle

● Douglas Castle

Image right - By Supergolden licensed under the Creative commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

The earliest notice of Douglas Castle occurs in 1288. In 1755 the whole structure, with the exception of the circular tower was destroyed by fire. (D MacGibbon and T Ross 1892). It was a stronghold of the Douglas family from medieval times to the 20th century. The first castle, erected in the 13th century by the Douglas family, was destroyed and replaced several times until the 18th century when a large mansion house was built in its place. This too was demolished in 1938, and today only a single corner tower of the 17th-century castle remains. In 1307, during the Wars of Scottish Independence the castle was captured and garrisoned by the English under Lord Clifford. Sir James Douglas, Lord of Douglas, companion of Robert the Bruce successfully recaptured his family seat by storming the castle on Palm Sunday, while the garrison were at chapel. He had the garrison killed and thrown into a cellar, before the structure was burned. The event has become known as "Douglas' larder". The loyalty of the Douglases was rewarded by Robert the Bruce, and Sir James' heirs were created Earls of Douglas. The castle was rebuilt as one of their strongholds, but by the 15th century, the power of the "Black" Douglases had come to threaten the Stewart monarchy. In 1455 James II led an expedition against the rebellious James Douglas, 9th Earl, defeating his forces at the battle of Arkinholm. Douglas Castle was sacked and the family's lands and titles forfeited. The "Red" Douglases, Earls of Angus, had sided with the king against the senior branch of their family and gained the Douglas lands in Lanarkshire. It is likely that the castle was rebuilt soon after 1455. In 1703, Archibald Douglas, 3rd Marquess of Douglas was created Duke of Douglas, with his principal seat at Douglas Castle. The castle was again rebuilt around this time, as a tower house and an enclosed courtyard with a corner tower. This castle was destroyed by fire in 1755, with the exception of the corner tower. From 1757, the Duke began construction of an enormous castellated mansion at Douglas. The architects of this, the final Douglas Castle, were the Adam Brothers (James Adam, John Adam, and Robert Adam). Duke of Douglas died in 1761, and only around half of the original design was ever completed. The five storey building had round towers to the front and square towers to the rear facade, and stood in an extensive park spanning the valley of the Douglas Water. The Duke's estate became the subject of a famous and bitter legal dispute over the rights to the Douglas estates, known as the 'Douglas Cause', between his nephew Archibald James Edward Douglas and the James Hamilton, 7th Duke of Hamilton, which Douglas won; he was ennobled as Baron Douglas in 1790. The castle descended through his daughter, and granddaughter, to the Earls of Home. In the 1930s Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home allowed the mining of coal in the park adjacent to the castle, in an attempt to relieve desperate levels of local unemployment. Sadly, the mining caused dangerous subsidence to the castle and it had to be demolished in 1938. The castle was the former family seat of the Prime Minister, Alec Douglas-Home. The remains are protected as a category C listed building.

● Drumsargad Castle

● Dunsyre Castle

● Duntervy Castle

E

● Eastend House

Image right Landed Families Blog

37 room stately home spread over 4 floors and is built around a 16th century keep with extensions and additions being added in various styles giving the building a bit of a mis-matched appearance. Originally a separate estate occupied by a branch of the Carmichael family which had separated from the senior line around 1500. When a John Carmichael died unmarried and without an heir in 1789, Eastend passed to his nephew Maurice Carmichael, son of Michael Carmichael of Hessilhead. Maurice’s son, another Michael, married Mary MacQueen Thomson Honyman, the daughter and heiress of William Thomson Honyman of Mansfield, Ayrshire. Upon their marriage, they took the name of Thomson-Carmichael. In 1851 they commissioned a large Scots baronial wing was added to the west by David Bryce. Michael Carmichael died in 1875, and was succeeded by his son, another Maurice. Maurice married Alice Isabella Henrietta Walker-Drummond, a descendant of the Drummonds of Hawthornden. They had three children and Eastend eventually passed to one of them, Edith Gertrude, who had married Henry Montgomery McNeil Hamilton of Broomhill and Raploch in 1896. It was used by the Polish Army between August 1940 and May 1941. A stone in the house, with the Polish eagle on it, commemorates the event. Following the Second World War the house returned to the McNeil Hamiltons, and following Edith’s death in 1959 it passed to two of her daughters, Miriam Millicent and Enid McNeill Hamilton. Enid died in 1979, but Miriam continued to live at Eastend until her death in 1991. At this time her cousin, Richard Carmichael who had inherited in Carmichael House 1980, exchanged land he owned at Crossridge with Miriam’s heirs for Eastend, bringing it back into the wider Carmichael Estate. Because of an outbreak of dry rot, the house is not currently habitable.

○ Landed Families Blog

● Easterton Burn motte

● Easthills

● Eastshield Tower

● Eddlewood Castle

● Elie House

Image right Landed Families Blog

Sir Philip Anstruther (c.1630-1702) had seven sons, five of whom were knighted or became baronets. The eldest, Sir William Anstruther (d. 1711), was an MP from 1681-1707 and a Lord of Session as Lord Anstruther. He was responsible for buying an estate at Elie and building Elie House as the family's first proper country house, and at much the same time his younger brother bought the Balcaskie estate. Elie descended to Sir William's son, Sir John Anstruther (1673-1754), 1st bt., whose marriage to Lady Margaret Carmichael in 1717 eventually brought the Carmichael estates in Lanarkshire to their descendants a hundred years later. His son was Sir John Anstruther (1718-99), 2nd bt, who made a major addition to Elie House and carried out a landscaping scheme in about 1771 that involved the building of the surviving summerhouse known as the Lady's Tower, and the clearance of a hamlet called Balclevie to improve the view. Sir Windham Carmichael-Anstruther (1793-1869), 7th & 4th bt. had a long life of expensive self-indulgence and financial incompetence. He was bankrupted five times. He sold Elie House to the industrialist William Baird in 1853. In the 1950s the house became a Retreat house for the Marie Reparatrice order of Nuns, and a large chapel was built for their use by Peter Whiston in 1958, as well as other utilitarian additions. In 2000, Elie was sold to a property developer who restored the house and converted it into 13 apartments: conversion and restoration was completed in 2012. The Elie estate with the exception of Elie House is owned and managed by the Trustees of the Elie Estate Trust under the stewardship of Sir Michael Nairn (4th Bt) and his son Alex Nairn, who now lives on the Estate with his wife and two young children.

○ Landed Families Blog

F

● Farme Castle

● Fatlips Castle

G

● Garnkirk House

● Garrion Tower

● Gilbertfield Castle

● Gilkerscleugh House

● Gillespie Moat

● Gladstone

● Glasgow Castle

● Glassford Castle

● Glendorch

● Glengeith

● Glenochar

H

● Haggs Castle

● Hallbar Tower

● Hamilton motte

● Hamilton Palace

● High House of Edmonston

I

● Inchnock Tower

J

● Jerviston House

● Jerviswood

K

● Kirk Burn motte

● Kirkhope Tower

L

● Ladle Knowe

● Laighe Castle

● Lamington Tower

● Lanark Castle

● Lauchope House

● Lawhead House

● Lee Castle

● Lickprivick Castle

● Lickprivick motte

● Little Clyde

M

● Mains Castle

● Moat

● Monkland House

● Mosscastle

● Murdostoun Castle

N

● Nemphlar bastle

● Nether Pollok Castle

O

● Ogs Castle

● Old Place

● Orbiston Castle

P

● Parkhall

● Partick Castle

● Patrickholm

● Plotcock Castle

● Provan Hall

Q

● Quothquan

R

● Raploch Castle

● Ringsdale Castle

● Roberton motte

● Ross House a.k.a. The Ross Hamilton.

Image right Landed Families Blog

Thomas Aikman, son of John Aikman, (1613-93) followed a legal career and was Keeper of the Records of Scotland. In 1704 he bought the estate of Ross House (alias The Ross) and Broomelton near Hamilton in Lanarkshire; the main house on this estate seems to have been the farmhouse at Broomelton until a new house was built at The Ross by John Forbes Aikman. The estate passed in turn to Thomas’ sons John and William, the latter of whom founded the Aikman Hospital in Hamilton in 1775 and died without issue in 1784. None of Thomas Aikman’s eighteen children having produced surviving issue, the Ross House estate then passed to John Forbes (1737-1821), the grandson of William Aikman the artist, who took the surname Aikman on succeeding to the estate, and who seems to have built the core of the present house on inheriting. He also died without issue and Ross House passed to Commander George Aikman (né Robertson) (1760-1844), the son of his sister Marian, and then in turn to his sons George Robertson Aikman (1817-79) and Major Hugh Henry Robertson Aikman (1819-82), who was a runholder in Australia from 1842-49; another son, Col. Frederick Robertson Aikman (1828-88), won the VC in the Crimean War. Hugh married Mary Stokes, the heiress to her father’s New Parks House estate near Leicester, which came into her possession on his death in 1867. Lt-Col. Sir John Forbes Inglefield-Watson, 5th Bt. was living at The Ross when he died in 2007.

○ Landed Families Blog

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● Rough Hill motte

● Rutherglen Castle

S

● Shieldhill Castle

● Silvertonhill

● Smithwood

● Snar

● Stonebyres

● Strathaven Castle

T

● The Peel

● The Tor

● Thorril Castle

● Todholes Castle

●Torrance Tower alt. Torrance House - 16th century - Private house. The original structure was an L-shape Tower House but many additions were made when it passed from the Hamilton family to the Stewart family in the mid to late 1600's.
Torrance Tower

Image right Courtesy of Scottish Castles Association

• Canmore

Connected People

• Thomas Hamilton of Torrance died 1454
• Robert Hamilton of Torrance died 1463
• John Hamilton of Torrance died 1475
• James Hamilton of Torrance died 1503
• Robert Hamilton of Torrance died before June 01, 1536
• Matthew Hamilton of Torrance died after 27th March 1550
• Robert Hamilton of Torrance died after June 04, 1579
• James Hamilton of Torrance died Oct. 1603
• Robert Hamilton of Torrance died 1624

● Torrance motte

● Tour of Mauconly

● Tower of Udstonhead

W

● Wallans Castle

● Waygateshaw House

● Wester Kittochside House

● Canmore Wester Kittochside

● Westhall Tower

● Westshield

● Windgate House

● Wintercleuch

References and Sources

Lanarkshire Specific

General

• Stravaiging.com
• Secret Scotland
• Canmore
• Historic Scotland
• National Trust
• English Heritage
• [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_houses_in_the_United_K... WIKI List of country houses in the UK]
• Britain's Finest
• [http://www.britainexpress.com/Where_to_go_in_Britain/historic_house... Britain Express]
• Lankdmark Trust
• Historic Houses Association - represents 1,500 houses in the UK
• Hudson's Historic Houses and Gardens - UK - guidebook of over 2,000 houses open to the public
• The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses - database of over 7,000 houses
• Lost Heritage - A Memorial to the Lost Country Houses of England - list of over 1,700 houses
• National Trust for Historic Preservation - online database of historic houses in the United State
• - http://www.hha.org.uk/ Historic Houses Association
• WIKI Treasure Houses of England

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Historic Buildings Projects for other Scottish Counties

See Counties of Scotland

Historic Buildings of Aberdeenshire

Historic Buildings of Angus

Historic Buildings of Argyllshire

Historic Buildings of Ayrshire

Historic Buildings of Banffshire

Historic Buildings of Berwickshire

Historic Buildings of Buteshire

Historic Buildings of Caithness

Historic Buildings of Clackmannanshire

Historic Buildings of Dumfries-shire

Historic Buildings of Dunbartonshire

Historic Buildings of East Lothian (Haddingtonshire)

Historic Buildings of Edinburghshire

Historic Buildings of Fifeshire, Scotland

Historic Buildings of Inverness-shire

Historic Buildings of Kincardineshire

Historic Buildings of Kinross-shire

Historic Buildings of Kirkcudbrightshire

Historic Buildings of Linlithgowshire

Historic Buildings of Moray, Morayshire or Elginshire

Historic Buildings of Nairn or Nairnshire

Historic Buildings of Orkney

Historic Buildings of Peebles-shire

Historic Buildings of Perthshire

Historic Buildings of Renfrewshire

Historic Buildings of Ross and Cromarty

Historic Buildings of Roxburghshire

Historic Buildings of Selkirkshire

Historic Buildings of Shetland

Historic Buildings of Stirlingshire

Historic Buildings of Sutherland

Historic Buildings of Wigtownshire

this project is in History Link