Last week we made a visit to Chatelherault Country Park which lies in the town of Hamilton in Scotland. It was our first visit there.
Its a really interesting park with a ton of history because the land used to belong to the Dukes of Hamilton.
The most intriguing aspect remaining is the Dukes' old hunting lodge, which is a rather odd building. Its built in a french style, but is very long and thin. It was built in the 1730s and is pretty much a folly. It sat opposite Hamilton Palace, which was the long time residence of the Dukes, but was demolished in the 1920s due to it being destabilised by coal mining underneath it !
Further behind the hunting lodge is this amazing gorge - which was a total surprise to us. You would never be able to tell it was there, noting that we have driven past this area numerous time. A huge bridge, aptly named the Duke's Bridge, spans high above the gorge leading to the ruins of Cadzow castle - which was our intended target.
Stupidly I never took a picture of Cadzow castle, which is now a complete ruin held up by scaffolding, although you can just make out some of the walls in the pic above. It looked directly out over the gorge and dates back to the 1500s.
The pic above shows one of the views from the Duke's Bridge over the gorge. The pic does not quite show the height - with the bridge being a good 200-300 feet above - it was quite impressive.
The park has a lot of sculptures and the like, loads of paths for walking, and is a great place for a visit. You can also visit the inside of some of the rooms of the hunting lodge as well (which I also never took pics of !).
One item at the park really intrigued me, which was the grassed area to one side of the hunting lodge which is walled-in with an odd small hillock at the end - all clearly man-made.
It looks like some kind of burial chamber to me, although I couldnt really find any information about it - I cant really think of what else it would be.
The hunting lodge is certainly interesting - it is both intriguing and underwhelming all at the same time. I say underwhelming because of its small size, being only one room deep - so it sort of seems out of proportion - although it was still nice to visit.
We didnt have a huge amount of time there, and the Park clearly has lots more to offer, so we'll have to make the trip back again when we have more time.
We were also rather lucky with the weather which was nice - and it looked like a lovely park to explore - plus there was no charge for entry or parking - which was a bonus. It also has a nice visitor centre with a cafe, so has lots to keep you entertained.
As said, we certainly enjoyed it, and will be making the trip back at some point in the future to explore it all further !