Pollok Castle

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Pollok Castle
Renfrewshire
House 2010 006.JPG
Pollok Castle
Location
Grid reference: NS52295688
Location: 55°46’57"N, 4°21’20"W
Village: Newton Mearns
History
Built Rebuilt 2003
Country house
Information

Pollok Castle stands in in the countryside at the western edge of Newton Mearns in Renfrewshire.

The castle was originally a tower dating from the 11th century. This castle was demolished and rebuilt as a large stately house 1686 by Sir Robert Pollok and served as his home.

By the late nineteenth century, Sir Robert Pollok's house was left empty. In 1882 it was completely destroyed by fire, but rebuilt shortly afterwards in the Scots Baronial style, incorporating some of the surviving elements of the earlier structure, by Mrs Ferguson Pollok of that ilk.

In the 1940s the house was finally abandoned and fell into ruin thereafter. Some of the ruins were dynamited in the 70s and a large prefabricated house erected on the castle foundations by Mr Greer who purchased Pollok Castle Estate from Glasgow Council. The gate houses at each end of the estate were also rebuilt along with the gardener's house and the castle stables and sold on as private residences.

In the early 1990s the prefabricated house was removed and the site cleared and the castle was again rebuilt in 2003, in the Adam style by Alex Hewitt.

Some of the original foundations and castle walls remain, on which the house has been built, notably a portion of the north moat wall, some 16 feet high, still remains.

Research

Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) undertook work on the Pollok Castle site and history in 2000.[1]

The report has been criticized for numerous patent inaccuracies, notably repeated use of the spelling 'Pollock'.

Outside links

References

  1. Summary of GUARD Report on Pollock Castle (sic)'