Castle Map

Ruin

Gilbertfield Castle

Scotland · 17th century

Founded
1607
Heritage status
scheduled monument
Location
South Lanarkshire
Coordinates
55.803°, -4.15065°
Links
Wikimedia Commons
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Gilbertfield Castle in Scotland
Photo: Supergolden · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

Gilbertfield Castle is a ruined 17th-century castle in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located at NS652587, on the north slope of Dechmont Hill, just outside Cambuslang, to the south-east of Glasgow.

The castle is within the former barony of Drumsagard, which was a possession of the Hamiltons. The castle was built in the early 17th century, and the date 1607 is displayed on a heraldic panel above the door. The castle was later lived in, around the turn of the 18th century, by William Hamilton of Gilbertfield (1665–1751), a retired soldier and writer. A friend of Allan Ramsay, he was responsible for translating Blind Harry's epic poem The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace.

Gilbertfield is a well-planned L-plan tower house. The stair tower, which projects to the north, was large enough to accommodate a series of rooms as well as a square turnpike stair.

The basement level was vaulted, and contained cellars and a kitchen, which had a large fireplace and oven. A service stair connected the basement with the hall above. The hall itself had a smaller fireplace, as well as large windows with gunloops in between. Above the hall were two further floors, each with three rooms; two in the main block, and one in the wing. At the highest level, the garret, two round turrets projected at the south-east and north-west corners. There was no parapet.

The castle is now a neglected ruin, the east wall having collapsed in the 1950s. Only the corbelling of the north-west turret remains.which fell down in the late 1960s. It is now deemed extremely dangerous as a lot of the brick work has fallen each year. The turret fell in the 1970s. Gilbertfield Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

In March 2017, an application by Persimmon Homes to build over 400 houses in land immediately to the north of Gilbertfield Castle was approved by South Lanarkshire Council's planning committee; this was somewhat controversial as the land had previously been designated Green belt.

Text adapted from “Gilbertfield Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Gilbertfield Castle ranks #6,720 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #224 of the 252 mapped in Scotland. Founded 1607, it is older than 31% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. 8 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Glasgow, 9 km away. See how Scotland compares in the castle statistics.

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