Qualla: Chatelherault Country Park

Chatelherault Country Park: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elliott Simpson, CC BY-SA 2.0. The 14th Duke of Hamilton signed lease after lease to mine coal under his own estate. By 1915 the seams ran directly under Hamilton Palace itself. The result was inevitable. Subsidence cracked the largest country house in Scotland, and the palace was sold for demolition in 1921. The same subsidence reached Chatelherault Hunting Lodge a mile down the great grass avenue, tilting William Adam's elegant pavilions just enough that a coin set on the floor will roll, and many visitors report feeling faintly seasick. The lodge is haunted not by ghosts but by geology.

Image: Elliott Simpson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Chatelherault Country Park: A French Duke in Lanarkshire

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit StaraBlazkova, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park's name comes from the French town of Châtellerault, near Poitiers. In 1549 James Hamilton, the 2nd Earl of Arran, was formally created Duc de Châtellerault by King Henri II of France as a reward for agreeing, in 1548, to the marriage of the young Mary, Queen of Scots, to...

Image: StaraBlazkova | CC BY-SA 4.0

Chatelherault Country Park: The Dogg Kennel

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Upson, CC BY-SA 2.0. William Adam designed the lodge and completed it in 1734. It is two buildings linked by a gateway - four pavilions above a garden wall, forming a folly meant to be seen from Hamilton Palace at the far end of a half-mile grass avenue lined with lime trees. The north facade, the on...

Image: Chris Upson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Chatelherault Country Park: Three Thousand Years of People Here

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elliott Simpson, CC BY-SA 2.0. Long before Adam built his folly, the woodlands south of Hamilton - then called Cadzow - were a hunting ground for the ancient kings of Strathclyde. A Bronze Age burial site was found here, with an urn and the undisturbed body of a woman who had lain in the soil for as much as 3,...

Image: Elliott Simpson | CC BY-SA 2.0

Chatelherault Country Park: Subsidence and Rescue

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rosser1954 Roger Griffith, Public domain. When debts forced the Hamiltons to sell their art collection in 1882 and abandon the palace, the family let the seams beneath them out for coal. By 1915 the mines ran under the palace itself. The ground in front of the hunting lodge was excavated for sand. The subsidence took the...

Image: Rosser1954 Roger Griffith | Public domain