Scotland · Ruin
Cadzow Castle
Cadzow Castle is a 16th-century stone castle built around 1530 by Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, now a ruin perched above the Avon Water in Chatelherault Country Park near Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. The structure was partly destroyed in the late 16th century and later used as a folly; the ruin is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is managed by Historic Environment Scotland.
Its prime
1530
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1530
What Cadzow Castle looked like in its prime.
A long, continuous ashlar stone range of warm-brown sandstone sits on the rim of a steep, wooded gorge above the Avon Water; the surviving elevation shows a linear band of regularly spaced narrow vertical openings and higher window apertures, rising directly from thick masonry at the cliff edge, backed by tall parkland trees. In its prime the range would have been complete with continuous roofs and upper floors, presenting a solid, horizontal roofline above the gorge.
Its story
The story of Cadzow Castle.
David I's Charters and the Missing Early Castle
Before the kingdom of Strathclyde was absorbed into Scotland in the twelfth century, its kings are believed to have kept a hunting lodge at Cadzow. An original Cadzow Castle is thought to have been raised in the twelfth century on an earlier high-status site as an occasional royal residence for David I, and royal charters of his reign were issued from here as early as 1139. Alexander II, Alexander III and their successors down to Robert the Bruce used it too, it is thought chiefly as a hunting lodge: the forested parkland around it formed part of the once more extensive royal forest of the Clyde Valley.
Where that early castle actually stood is unsettled. Archaeologists favour the site later known as Hamilton Motte, beside the original settlement and its religious foundation, over an alternative at Castlehill, now under a housing estate and on unpromising ground for a fortification. Excavations at the present castle, sponsored by Historic Scotland between 2000 and 2003, found no evidence of an early medieval fortification on the site, nor of any settlement large enough to rival the medieval settlement of Cadzow.
Comyn Forfeiture and the Barony of Cadzow, 1222-1455
The estate of Cadzow was divided in 1222, the castle passing to the Comyns. After their lands were forfeited for supporting John Balliol, Robert the Bruce granted the estate in the early fourteenth century to Walter FitzGilbert de Hambeldon, who was ennobled as the first Baron of Cadzow and is the ancestor of the dukes of Hamilton. FitzGilbert built another fortification, which may be the motte that still stands near the town. The medieval settlement itself kept the name Cadzow, or Cadyou, until 1455, when it was renamed in honour of James Hamilton, 1st Lord Hamilton.
Finnart's Castle and the Earl of Mar's Retaliation
The castle that stands in ruins today was built between 1500 and 1550, around 1530, by Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, the builder of nearby Craignethan Castle, on a site a mile south-east of the centre of Hamilton above the gorge of the Avon Water. James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran, was confined here in April 1566, after four years in Edinburgh Castle, for an alleged plot against Mary, Queen of Scots.
Mary herself stayed at Cadzow after her escape from Lochleven Castle in 1568. In retaliation for the Hamiltons' support of the queen, forces of the Earl of Mar, regent for James VI, destroyed the castle in the late sixteenth century.
The Duke's Folly and the Ruin at Chatelherault
In the eighteenth century the wreck was partially rebuilt to serve as a folly within the duke of Hamilton's park, the hunting and pleasure grounds of the Hamilton Palace estate known as Hamilton High Parks. Those grounds are now Chatelherault Country Park.
The site has been a scheduled monument since 1963 and is owned and managed by Historic Environment Scotland. There is no public access to the ruins, the structure being unstable and largely supported by scaffolding; footpaths through the country park allow it to be seen, with the most dramatic view from the Duke's Bridge, carried high across the Avon gorge.
Step inside
5 places to explore in 1530.
The record describes 5 distinct spots at Cadzow Castle, including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Cadzow Castle.
The families that held Cadzow Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Granted by Robert the Bruce to Walter FitzGilbert, first Baron of Cadzow and ancestor of the dukes of Hamilton; the present castle was built c.1530 by Sir James Hamilton of Finnart.
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