1679 Tower in the Background

There’s a picture hanging in the National Gallery of Scotland that depicts the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679. Looking at the background, toward Blantyre, I was surprised to see a tall, stone looking building amongst the hills at that sparsely populated time.

As I zoomed in, I could see it was a substantial tower. What was this? Was it Crossbasket Tower? Or Calderwood Castle? Or perhaps even it was the tower of the large Tower & Fortalice structure that once stood at Old Mains near where Janefield Place is today.

Once again, in old etchings, the former Bothwell Bridge had 5 arches by comparison to today’s four. The picture also shows Bothwell’s position and the army positions well. An interesting picture and one which made me pause to appreciate the scale and topography.

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