A Memorial Garden at Strathclyde Park - geograph

Plaque in the Memorial Garden - geograph

The other plaque in the Memorial Garden - geograph

Bothwellhaugh was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

coal mining

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

, which housed Hamilton Palace Colliery workers and their families. Locals referred to the village as The Pailis, and it was located near the towns of

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

and

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

, in

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

. The village was occupied from the mid-1880s, until it was demolished in 1965.

Pre-mining History

The remains of the

Bothwellhaugh Roman Fort Bothwellhaugh Roman Fort is a site now located within Strathclyde Country Park in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is east of where the South Calder Water flows into Strathclyde Loch. The fort is a scheduled monument. Location Before the flood ...

and a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

bath house were found in the park; it is around a day's march from the

Antonine Wall The Antonine Wall () was a turf fortification on stone foundations, built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. Built some twenty years after Hadrian's Wall to the south ...

James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh and Woodhouselee (died 1581) was a Scottish supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots, who assassination, assassinated James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, in January 1570.#Donaldson, Donaldson 1977, p. 93 ...

, became notorious for being the assassin of

James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray (c. 1531 – 23 January 1570) was a member of the House of Stewart as the illegitimate son of King James V of Scotland. At times a supporter of his half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots, he was the regent of Scotl ...

, Regent of Scotland, at

Linlithgow Linlithgow ( ; ; ) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a historic route between Edi ...

in 1570.

Mining village

There were two

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

s on the site operated by the ''Bent Colliery Company''. Housing was developed from the late 1880s until 1905. Before WW1 over 2000 tonnes of coal a day were being produced by over 1000 miners. The mining from this pit led to the demolition of

Hamilton Palace Hamilton Palace was a country house in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was the seat of the Dukes of Hamilton and is widely acknowledged as having been one of the grandest houses in the British Isles.River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

meant that pumping became a major cost. The houses had fallen into poor state of repair and sewage was becoming a problem. The site of the village has now been flooded to produce Strathclyde Loch, within

Strathclyde Country Park Strathclyde Country Park is a country park located on the outskirts of Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, named after the former Strathclyde region of Scotland. It is often commonly referred to as Strathclyde, or simply Strathy. Desc ...

. about ten miles south-east of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. The Bothwellhaugh name is retained in a set of football/rugby pitches operated by

North Lanarkshire Council North Lanarkshire Council is one of the 32 local authorities of Scotland, covering the North Lanarkshire council area. The council is the second largest Scottish council by number of councillors, having 77 members. Political control The counci ...

, near to the M&D's amusement park and the ''Raith Interchange'' of the

M74 motorway The A74(M) and M74 form a major motorway in Scotland, connecting it to England. The routes connect the M8 motorway (Scotland), M8 motorway in central Glasgow to the Scottish-English Anglo-Scottish border, border at Gretna, Scotland, Gretna. T ...

/ A725. Bothwellhaugh was used as the name of a nearby development by Miller Homes in Bothwell, with one of the streets being named Pailis Crescent in honour of the old village.

Memorial

There is a

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

at Strathclyde Park to remember the village. Former residents of the village hold an annual reunion, meeting at the cairn. A memorial to the village and visitor centre has been proposed at the old Raith farm workers cottage.

Bibliography

''Bothwellhaugh: A Lanarkshire mining community, 1884-1965'' Robert Duncan, Workers Educational Association, 1986

References

External links

Lost Village of Bothwellhaugh
video (10 mins)
Bothwellhaugh Ex-Residents Committee
{{coord, 55.799203, -4.043928, type:city(200)_region:GB, display=title Former populated places in Scotland Ghost towns in Scotland 1880s establishments in Scotland 1965 disestablishments in Scotland Populated places established in the 1880s Populated places disestablished in 1965 History of North Lanarkshire Mining communities in Scotland Former mines in Scotland