Bothwell Castle

This was the largest and finest stone castle in Scotland dating from before the War of Independence, though the full design seems never to have been completed. It was the principal English base in western Scotland during the Plantagenet occupation, and was repeatedly taken and retaken. The chief remnant of the original structure is the superb cylindrical donjon, one half of which was cast down by the Scots when they finally retook the castle in 1336. Later it belonged to the Douglases, to whom its reconstruction is due. The Douglas buildings include a hall and a chapel, both in very rich architecture. The castle is grandly situated on a steep bank overlooking a bend of the River Clyde, and stands in a spacious and well-timbered park. Near it are the fifteenth century Bothwell Church and Bothwell Bridge, where the Covenanters were defeated by Monmouth in 1679. Located three quarters of a  mile south-west of Uddingston.