Qualla: Crookston Castle

Crookston Castle: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Of all the medieval castles that once stood within the boundary of modern Glasgow, only one is left, and not in a pristine state, but recognisably standing: Crookston Castle, on its hill above the Levern Water in the Pollok area. It is the second-oldest building in the city, after the cathedral. The earthworks around it are older than the stones; the ring ditch was cut in the twelfth century, by a Norman named Robert de Croc whose family gave the place its name. The walls were thrown up around 1400, battered by the King of Scotland's siege gun in 1489, repaired, besieged again in 1544, and have stood empty for most of the centuries since. They are, against odds, still here.

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Crookston Castle: Robert de Croc's Hill

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The earliest fortification on this hill predates anything written down about it; archaeological work has revealed signs of a still older defended site beneath the medieval layers. In the late twelfth century Sir Robert de Croc, a Norman knight, built a timber and earth castle her...

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Crookston Castle: Mons Meg Comes to Glasgow

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1489 the Stewart Earl of Lennox rebelled against King James IV. James's response was characteristically modern; he sent the country's most famous artillery piece against his rebel earl. Mons Meg, the great medieval bombard now back at Edinburgh Castle, was dragged west and aim...

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Crookston Castle: The Yew Tree and Lord Darnley

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Crookston passed into the dower lands of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. Her son was Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots and the father of King James VI of Scotland and I of England. Tradition says it was at Crookston, under a yew tree on ...

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Crookston Castle: An X-Plan on a Hill

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Crookston's architecture is the bookish part. The castle has a rectangular main block, strengthened by towers at each of its four corners, producing an unusual irregular X-plan that you only otherwise see at the great Borders fortress of Hermitage Castle. The entrance is on the n...

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