Well, this castle may be familiar. It is of course BOTHWELL CASTLE, a reconstruction showing how it may have looked like in its glorious days before battles and invasion.

Can you imagine this castle over 700 years ago, looking like this, majestic standing above a River Clyde abundant with Salmon and overlooking a newly built Blantyre Priory?! A time when Blantyre itself had only just been formed in name, inhabited by no more than a a few dozen people.

Featuring Blantyre Project Social Media with permission. Strictly not for use by others on or offline, our visitors said:

Thomas Fallon There was a Blantyre man standing on top of the priory bing with his pals and tells them, nae wonder it’s a ruin awe they would need to do was stand up here and fire right into the middle of it Johnny Maguire
Chris Ladds Blantyre as a name Paul can be linguistically secured in style to c. 500-900 AD despite the dubious etymology. The question is whether settlement began to the south or north.

Certainly by the high middle ages there was a typical church, castle, monastic linear axis from south to north, but further back in time Is a problem.

It could be there was a much older settlement around the Craig (seems likely due to topography and lack of finds during excavation revealing remains further south), or to the south around the area originally called just Blantyre and not High Blantyre until later when the newer lower town required the higher to be distinguished by name. As I say, excavations have revealed nothing telling.

The most telling settlement feature for the high middle ages is the rich concentration of small field parcels occupying the lands between what is now High Blantyre and the Craig down the hill. That and the toponym Priestfield, which tends to be early Medieval in origin.
Marian Maguire Maybe that was my father in law Johnny maguire he worked at the Priory pit.