Calderwood Castle was located in East Kilbride, Scotland. The castle was situated near the banks of the Rotten Calder Water in what is now Calderglen Country Park. Most likely constructed in the early to mid fifteenth century by the Maxwell family, the original peel tower collapsed in 1773. It was replaced by an extension to a large 18th-century country house called Calderwood House, which has itself since been demolished along with a later 1840s Gothic Revival addition.
An earlier building is suggested to have stood on the site or more likely a better defended former fort nearby to the north west, which allegedly belonged to the Barony of Mearns (Roland De Mernis); being passed to the Maxwells of Pollok through an alleged marriage not testified by extant genealogical records. [1] [2]
The first known castle built on the Calderglen site of the 'Dee of Calder' was a large rectangular tower house. It was constructed in the early 15th century as ascertained from stylistic designs known from images, as well as historical literature. This building, which is described as two adjoined towers with an extraordinarily thick middle wall, collapsed in January 1773 following several days of storms. [3]
Later in the 18th century a mansion house was constructed on the site, which was extended in the 1840s. The latter development was executed in a spectacular form of Gothic Revival design, quite unique. The design has now been attributed to David Rhind, who was prominent during the period and on personal terms with the Maxwells of Calderwood as well as advertising for the building works during the 1830s. [4] This architect is also thought to have designed the Maxwellton Schoolhouse, within a small weaving village on the old Calderwood Estate, which is still in good preservation as a residential area within the new town of East Kilbride. [5] [6]
In 1904 the Calderwood estate was sold to the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (SCWS), who used the estate for agriculture. They also opened up the glen as a pleasure ground, and briefly turned the castle into a co-operative museum. During the First World War, around 200 refugees from Belgium were housed in the castle. [7] The country house fell into disrepair following its use for billeting troops during the Second World War as well as maintenance costs. Calderwood Glen Platform was opened on the Blantyre to East Kilbride line to serve the Calderwood Estate's visitors in 1907, closing in 1939.
The estate was purchased by East Kilbride Development Corporation in 1947, by which time most of the castle was already demolished. The remaining sections were demolished with explosives in 1951. [8] Nothing now remains except half-buried ruins and rubble and the intact walled driveway terrace which fronted the building. [9]
The now-ruined Craigneith Castle is located on the opposite side of the river, and served as a decorative folly, visible from Calderwood, as well as a viewing platform for the Calderwood Linn waterfall, and practically as servant quarters. [8] [10]
A painting of the castle by Robert Purves Bell is in the collection of South Lanarkshire Council. [11]
An engraving by A. Robertson after a sketch by Paul Sandby from c. 1750 depicts the castle viewed from the south. The engraving is recorded as having featured in Forsyth's Beauties of Scotland, although this book does not contain the engraving. The engraved view does appear in the August 1788 edition of the "Edinburgh Magazine or Literary Miscellany". [12] An original finished watercolour of the scene was sold a few decades ago privately by public auction. Sandby worked the latter view up from a simpler bistre sketch of the same view, upon which the later engraving is based. This original sketch is held by the National Library of Wales and originally belonged to the antiquarian and naturalist Thomas Pennant.
On the same visit Sandby produced a sketch of the Calderwood Linn which features on the back of a more well-known view by him of Bothwell Castle. This sketch was unknown until 2015 when Chris Ladds, a historian, found reference to a wash drawing of a waterfall named "Calderwood Linn on the Clyde". [13] The Sandby sketch of the waterfall belonged to David Laing, a Scottish antiquarian, and is now in the collection of drawings held at the National Galleries of Scotland prints room, Edinburgh..
Another engraving features in facsimile in Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland by MacGibbon & Ross, which is based upon an original sketch described as signed "W. Binton, 1765". [3] It has been shown through examination of this sketch and similar that this actually reads "N. Britain", a reference to 'North Britain' as representing Scotland rather than a signature, and that the engraving is believed to be copied after a lost original by Sandby in addition to numerous others held by the King's topography collection at the British Library. [14] This confusion caused the drawing to be lost to those trying to find it for the past 100 years. It was rediscovered in 2015, again by Chris Ladds, and is also now held by the National Galleries of Scotland.
Calderwood Castle in the opinion of many genealogical groups is thought to have been anciently possessed by a family bearing the name Calderwood. [15] In fact Calderwood is so ancient a title that it predates Castles in their modern interpretation. The documents regarding the ancient lands of Calderwood and family are scarce, but do suggest that the name descends from a small village or possibly a defended iron-age town (oppidum) as referred to in marriage charters. [16] There were several Calderwood landholdings in the area, and the retainers on the lands would have gone by this name, rather than any fortification at the Dee of Calder. [17] [18] [19]
South Lanarkshire is one of 32 unitary authorities of Scotland. It borders the south-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains some of Greater Glasgow's suburban towns, as well as many rural towns and villages. It also shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Borders and West Lothian. It includes most of the historic county of Lanarkshire.
East Kilbride is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland, and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a raised plateau to the south of the Cathkin Braes, about eight miles southeast of Glasgow and close to the boundary with East Renfrewshire.
Blantyre is a town and civil parish in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, with a population of 16,900. It is bounded by the River Clyde to the north, the Rotten Calder to the west, the Park Burn to the east and the Rotten Burn to the south.
Newton Mearns is a suburban town and the largest settlement in East Renfrewshire, Scotland. It lies 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Glasgow City Centre on the main road to Ayrshire, 410 feet (125 m) above sea level. It has a population of approximately 26,993, stretching from Whitecraigs and Kirkhill in the northeast to Maidenhill in the southeast, to Westacres and Greenlaw in the west and Capelrig/Patterton in the northwest.
Castlemilk is a district of Glasgow, Scotland. It lies to the far south of the city centre, adjacent to the Croftfoot and Simshill residential areas within the city to the north-west, the town of Rutherglen - neighbourhoods of Spittal to the north-east and Fernhill to the east, Linn Park and its golf course to the west, and the separate village of Carmunnock further south across countryside.
The Rotten Calder is a river to the east of East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, Scotland and along with the Rotten Burn it forms the southern and western boundaries of Blantyre.
Crookston is a residential suburb on the southwestern edge of the city of Glasgow, Scotland.
Robert Winters is a Scottish former footballer who played as a striker. He made one appearance for the Scotland national team in 1999.
Nerston is a village situated on the northern green-belt boundary of the new town of East Kilbride in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
The A725 road in Scotland is a major route which is a trunk road dual carriageway for almost its whole length, connecting several of the large towns of North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire, linking the M8 and M74 motorways; it has been upgraded frequently since its construction, with the most recent major work completed in 2017. In combination with the A726 road which meets the M77 motorway, it forms a southern and eastern bypass for the city of Glasgow.
David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross were Scottish architects. Their practice, MacGibbon and Ross was established in 1872 and continued until 1914. They are best known today for their comprehensive published surveys of Scotland's architectural heritage.
Linn Park is an 82-hectare (200-acre) park in Glasgow, Scotland, surrounded by the suburbs of Cathcart, Muirend, Simshill, and Castlemilk, also bordering Netherlee in East Renfrewshire. It is Glasgow's third largest park, after Pollok Country Park and Dams to Darnley Country Park, although Dams to Darnley is half in East Renfrewshire. Both Linn and Pollok parks have the White Cart Water flowing through them. Some areas in the park are unsuitable for prams and the infirm.
Calderwood is a neighbourhood of the Scottish new town of East Kilbride, in South Lanarkshire. It lies on its north-east edge and is one of the largest areas of the town.
Castlemilk House was a country house located in what is now the Castlemilk district of Glasgow, Scotland. The house was the ancestral home of the Stirling-Stuart family and was built around the 15th-century Cassiltoun Tower during the 18th and 19th centuries. The house and Castlemilk Estate were purchased by Glasgow Corporation in 1938, with the house serving as a children's home until it was closed in 1969 and demolished in 1972.
Calderwood is a place-derived surname, of Brythonic and Old English origins in Lanarkshire Scotland.
Calderglen Country Park is a country park in the town of East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is situated along the eastern edge of the town and is its principal greenspace and recreation area.
Calderwood Glen Platform railway station was a public and an excursion platform on the Blantyre and East Kilbride Branch of the Caledonian Railway which ran from East Kilbride to Hunthill Junction at High Blantyre. Opened in 1907 served by trains between East Kilbride and Blantyre until 1924 and after used as an excursion platform for the Calderwood Estate pleasure grounds until closure in 1939 due to war time shortages.
The A724 road in Scotland runs within South Lanarkshire between Rutherglen and Hamilton. It follows an ancient route which is marked on William Roy's Lowland Map of Scotland (1755) with only minor deviations from its modern course.