Cathcart Castle

The lands of Cathcart were held by the family of that name from the 12th century. In the mid-15th century the head of the family was raised to the peerage as Lord Cathcart, and the castle is believed to have been built at around that time. It stood on the rocky north-east bank of the White Cart Water: a rectangular tower house of 15.5 by 9 m and five storeys including a vaulted basement, set at the centre of a small barmkin some 22 by 15 m. The curtain wall around it carried round corner towers and a twin-towered gatehouse to the east, and earthworks to the west have been interpreted as an outer bailey or ringwork.

In 1546 the castle passed to the Semple family.

The story attached to the castle puts Mary, Queen of Scots at Cathcart on the night before the Battle of Langside in 1568, watching the fighting from a nearby hill called the Court Knowe. It is highly unlikely on both counts. The Semples were supporters of Mary's enemies and would have captured her and put an end to her plans before the battle had started. Court Knowe, in any case, sits some 15 m below the height of Langside village where the battle was fought, so she could not have seen what took place; Prospecthill, on the line of her army's approach to Langside, would be a likelier vantage point.

An alternative version has the Queen lodging with her kinsfolk the Stuarts of Castlemilk, whose stronghold at the foot of the Cathkin Braes contained a chamber later known as Queen Mary's Room, its ceiling ornamented with the arms of the Stuart monarchs of Scotland. That too is unlikely: Mary spent the preceding week at Hamilton, where 6,000 troops gathered.

Archaeological investigation of the site recovered a fragmentary plaster armorial of the 1630s bearing the arms of Bryce Semple and Jean Lauder of Hatton, apparently part of a fireplace overmantle and ceiling in the hall of the tower. In 1740 the Semples built Cathcart House nearby, since demolished in its turn, and moved out of the castle, leaving it to ruin.

The newly created 1st Earl Cathcart bought back his ancestral home in 1814, although with the intention of selling off the stone rather than living in it. In 1866 the castle was still standing to five storeys, surrounded by outbuildings. Glasgow City Council purchased the lands around the castle in 1927 and added them to Linn Park, and the site was scheduled on 30 May 1961.

In 1980 the remaining ruins were pronounced dangerous and pulled down by the council. The foundations of the tower house survive to around 1 m high, protected as a Scheduled Monument.