The castle at Rutherglen was granted to Queen Joanna as
part of her dowry in 1221. It was garrisoned by the English during the
Wars of Independence and was kept in good repair until after the
battle of Langside in 1568, when
it was burnt on the orders of the Regent Moray. One of the principal
towers was refurbished and it became the seat of the Hamiltons of
Elistoun.
The Castle of Rutherglen seems to have been at one time a place of
considerable strength and importance. This structure, which was said to
have been erected by Reuther, a king whose name is associated with the
origin of the town, was indeed ranked among the fortresses of the
country.
The castle at Rutherglen was granted to Queen Joanna as part of her
dowry in 1221.
During the troubles which broke out in consequence of the contested
claims of Bruce and Baliol, the usurper, Edward of England, took
possession of this and other castles of Scotland. Robert the Bruce, when
he raised the standard of his country’s independence, determined to
wrest this important place of strength from the English. He accordingly
laid siege to it in the year 1309. On hearing of this, Edward sent his
nephew, the young Earl of Gloucester, to relieve the garrison. What the
immediate result was is somewhat doubtful. Some historians assert that
Bruce overcame the garrison, while others are of opinion that he was
forced to retire without accomplishing his purpose.
One source claims that, following the
Battle of the Pass of Brander, in late 1308,
Sir James Douglas joined with Edward
Bruce, the king's brother, successfully assaulting Rutherglen Castle. A
sitting of parliament was then held before it was again taken by English
forces. Bruce and Douglas then went on to campaign in Galloway.
In 1313, however, the Scottish king took possession of Rutherglen
Castle, having driven the English from the country, and made a descent
upon England, carrying fire and sword into several of the northern
counties.”
The castle it would seem was handed for a short while during this
tumultuous period into the hands of the Anglified French/Wales based
Baron: Aymer de Valance, who for a while owned nearby
Bothwell castle and many of the
surrounding lands.
The castle and gardens were described as being in a state of disorder in
1710 (Wilson, 1936, 10). Ure explained that on the decline of the
Hamilton family at the end of the seventeenth century, the 'house was
left to fall to ruins by frequent dilapidations, and was soon levelled
with the ground'. Foundation stones measuring five feet in length by
four feet in breadth were removed in 1759. Subsequently, they were built
into a dyke adjoining the burgh but by the middle of the last century
all trace of them had disappeared.
The castle occupied a site in King Street, nearly at the point where it
is intersected by Castle Street in a square measuring from the Salvation
Army Hall to Castle Street northward to the south side of the railway
embankment, while the grounds 'abutted on the Kirkyard, the Main Street,
Rutherglen Green and included the whole of Alleybank'. No vestiges of
Rutherglen castle are to be observed above ground level. |
