Strathaven Castle, Scotland

 

Strathaven Castle

This evening, my theme is Strathaven Castle the ruins of which sit on a prominent rocky mound above the conservation village that shares its name.

Strathaven is a pleasant country town located about 25 miles south of Glasgow in the west of Scotland.

A brief chronology of this castle is as follows:

  • First castle erected in 1170s by the Baird family whose ancestor fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
  • First stone castle built around 1350. This was burnt down in the 1450s, possibly by King James II. By this time the castle was in hands of the Black Earls of Douglas. Around 1455 the castle seems to have been deliberately slighted.
  • Around the mid 1400s the castle was gifted to Sir Andrew Stewart, Lord Avondale, a supporter of the King.
  • Lord Avondale built the castle in the form that we know today.
  • In 1534 the castle passed to Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, a  military architect who served King James V as Master of the King’s Works,
  • The castle passed to the Marquesses and Dukes of Hamilton in 1611 in whose hands it remained until 1912.
  • Today the castle is a romantic ruin which is accessible  by the public.

Strathaven Castle

More information

The publication Visitors’ Guide to Scotland includes a section on castles plus a wide range of other topics. The ISBN is 978-1-9161332-0-4. The book is also available via Kindle.

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