Partick Castle was located in

Partick Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and to t ...

, now a Western suburb of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

. It was built in 1611 for the

benefactor

George Hutcheson George Hutcheson (died 1639), of Lambhill, Lanarkshire, was joint-founder with his younger brother Thomas Hutcheson, of Hutchesons' Hospital, Glasgow. Life George Hutcheson became a public writer and notary in Glasgow, and by his success in b ...

and situated on the west bank of the River Kelvin.

Description

Writing in the early eighteenth century, Hamilton of Wishaw described the building:

"...where Kelvin falls into Clyde, is the house of Pertique, a well-built and convenient house, well planted with barren timber and large gardens, which are enclosed with stone walls, and which formerly belonged to George Hutcheson in Glasgow, but now to John Crawford of Myltoun."

According to the local historian James Napier, it was left empty in 1770 and was unroofed and in ruins by 1783. It was demolished during the 1830s. Another local writer records that its remains were removed in a single night to 'form dykes in the neighbouring fields'. This happened in 1836 or 1837. Napier also provides an anecdotal description of the building in its later days when it was a tenanted property:

The account of the house given to me by a person who had often been in it when it was inhabited, was, that the under flat was partially sunk & vaulted. The second flat was entered by a few steps up, and had a stone floor laid on the arches. There were several apartments in this flat, which formed a sort of hostelry. The top flat had a deal floor and consisted of a large hall which was used for public gatherings, balls, and dancing parties, and over this flat were attics, which were used as bedrooms and for holding lumber. There was a well outside the house. The main entrance door was covered with large-headed nails, so also was a two-leafed door which formed the outer entrance to the grounds. The grounds being surrounded by a stone wall.

A poem published locally (in the Glasgow Magazine or the Bee) in the nineteenth century describes it thus:

Lo, Partick Castle, drear and lone,
Stands like a silent looker-on,
Where Clyde and Kelvin meet;
The long rank grass waves o’er its walls;
No sound is heard within its halls,
Save noise of distant waterfalls,
Where children lave their feet."

The castle's remains are likely to lie under the south-western end of the

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues an ...

development site in

. The site was most recently a scrapyard but before that a dye-works, a foundry and a laundry. Unlike most of the old village of

, the castle's site was not removed by the excavations involved in the construction of the now disused Partick Central railway station. Rather, the castle site's solum was preserved under the aforementioned industrial buildings. As part of Scottish Water's Glasgow environmental improvement programme, part of the castle was uncovered & excavated by GUARD Archaeology.

Bishop's Castle

According to some sources, the site of Hutcheson's building was also the site of a castle and country residence of the

Bishops of Glasgow The Archbishop of Glasgow is an archiepiscopal title that takes its name after the city of Glasgow in Scotland. The position and title were abolished by the Church of Scotland in 1689; and, in the Scottish Episcopal Church, it is now part of th ...

. This is the castle depicted on the former

Burgh A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. ...

of Partick's coat of arms. In 1136, King David had granted to the land of

(Perdeyc) to the See of

. In 1362, a settlement of a dispute between the Bishop and his chapter house was made at his ''manor-house of Perthic''. Glasgow's Bishops continued to use their residence in Partick until the reformation in 1560, when Bishop James Beaton II fled to France from there, taking with him the sacred relics from

Glasgow Cathedral Glasgow Cathedral ( gd, Cathair-eaglais Ghlaschu) is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest cathedral in mainland Scotland and the oldest building in Glasgow. The cathedral was the seat of the Archbishop ...

. The remains of that castle may have been discovered near the mouth of the River Kelvin during work to install sewage pipes in 2016. At the marriage of Sir George Elphinstone of Blythswood to Agnes Boyd in 1600, James VI promised the couple a bigger house. Sir George was given the New Park of Partick in order to manage the woodland, introduce deer, and build an 'ample' house for himself and for the king to resort to after hunting. This may have been built on the site of the Bishop's residence.

Dark Ages Royal residence

There is some evidence that

was an important centre for the Kings of Alt Clut/Strathclyde. According to the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Sain ...

monk and hagiographer of

St Kentigern Kentigern ( cy, Cyndeyrn Garthwys; la, Kentigernus), known as Mungo, was a missionary in the Brittonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in the late sixth century, and the founder and patron saint of the city of Glasgow. Name In Wales and England, this ...

, Jocelin of Furness, King Rhydderch had a residence in 'Pertnech' (

). Some archaeologists have deduced that the royal

estate was part of a larger elite centre of the kingdom, which included the ecclesiastical centre just across the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

Govan Govan ( ; Cumbric?: ''Gwovan'?''; Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of south-west City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south b ...

. The lands of Partick remained royal property until King David granted them to the

.Macquarrie, Alan (1993) ''The Kings of Strathclyde, c.400–1018'' pp. 1–19 in Medieval Scotland: Government, Lordship and Community: Studies Presented to G.W.S. Barrow. Edited by A. Grant and K.J. Stringer There is no primary evidence that the site of Hutcheson's castle was the same as this royal residence.

References

External links

Partick Castle in the ''Glasgow's Story'' website

{{coord, 55.868389, -4.304559, type:landmark_region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36, display=title Castles in Glasgow Former castles in Scotland Partick

Description

Bishop's Castle

Dark Ages Royal residence

See also

References

External links