Calderwood Castle

Calderwood Castle was a castle in East Kilbride. The castle was situated near the banks of the Rotten Calder Water. in what is now Calderglen Country Park. Most likely constructed in the late fourteenth to early fifteenth century by the Maxwell family, the original peel tower collapsed in 1773 after several days of severe weather. An earlier building is suggested to have stood on the site which belonged to the Barony of Mearns (Roland De Mernis), which passed with its lands to the Maxwells through marriage. The first known 'castle' was built on the site in the early 15th century as ascertained from stylistic designs known from images, as well as historical literature. Later in the mid 18th century and then 1840's a sprawling mansion house was constructed and extended on the site, with the latter development being executed in a spectacular form of Gothic Revival design, quite unique, and whilst the architect is not known, has been attributed to David Rhind, who was prominent during the period and on personal terms with the Maxwells of Calderwood. This architect is also thought to have designed the Maxwellton Schoolhouse, with the former beinga small weaving village which was situated on the old Calderwood Estate and still in good preservation as a conservation residential area within the new town of East Kilbride., but it eventually fell into disrepair by the 1940s, with the final vestiges of the castle being demolished with explosives in 1951. Nothing now remains except ruins and rubble. The now-ruined Craigneith Castle is nearby.

A painting of the castle by Robert Purves Bell is in the collection of South Lanarkshire Council. An Engraving by A. Robertson after a sketch by Paul Sandby from c. 1750's also exist depicting the castle viewed from the south. The engraving is recorded as having featured in Forsyth's Beauties of Scotland, However this book does not contain the engraving, and it appears more likely to be sourced from a late 18th-century Scottish Periodical Edinburgh Magazine. An original wash sketch of the scene was sold a few decades ago privately by public auction. Sandby also produced another simpler sketch of the same view which the engraving is based upon. This is held by the National Library of Wales. 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 of until 2015 when Historian Chris Ladds found reference to a wash drawing of a waterfall named 'Calderwood Linn on the Clyde' Another engraving after a drawing signed 'N. Britain' features is facsimile in Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland by McGibbon & Ross, however the authors misinterpreted the locational signing as saying W. Binton. 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 Calderglen Historian Chris Ladds of Calderwood. The original drawing is kept in the collection of drawings held at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. The Sandby sketch of the waterfall belonged to David Laing, a Scottish antiquarian, whereas the 'N. Britain' sketch is believed to be after a lost original by Sandby. Both are now held by sections of the National Galleries of Scotland.

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