It’s great to be able to include scenes of Bothwell Castle on Blantyre Project, for although quite clearly the castle is “across the river Clyde” in Bothwell, the paintings and depictions were made from the Blantyre side! As such, I find them wholly relevant for inclusion on this page.
Pictured from Blantyre Priory are two almost identical scenes looking over to Bothwell Castle. The earliest is the more faded scene from 1770. However, the other scene was painted in 1782 by Robert Adam and remains one of my favourite pictures. They don’t appear to be too exaggerated, something which was common in early paintings. I like also that they both record a river boat crossing existed at the Priory, despite the dozen years separating the pictures. This is strong evidence that the crossing was very important, at a time before Dale’s mills and the suspension bridge was built. Although the Priory itself is not in the photos (the foreground is Blantyre), there is another very large house in the distance, beyond the Castle. It may be a surprise to many people to learn that a massive house stood beside the castle, called Bothwell House. Dating from 1661, the house was demolished in 1926, suffering from subsidence from the nearby Priory Colliery. A search for “Bothwell House” on this website will return more about this forgotten building.