Hamilton – A Duke's Hunting Lodge, a Gorge and a Museum
A few hours.
The route
Hamilton Palace, the home of the Dukes of Hamilton, came down in the 1920s, but the grand hunting lodge William Adam built at the far end of its avenue still stands above the wooded gorge of the Avon.
This is a day in the dukes' country, with a short woodland walk, the town museum and, on tour days, the family's domed mausoleum.
The day
Hamilton
A morning in the woods and the hunting lodge at Chatelherault, lunch in its café, and an afternoon with the dukes' story in Hamilton.
Most of a dayAbout 2 miles on foot
Chatelherault Country Park
The visitor centre beside the free car park is open every day from 10am to 5pm, with an exhibition on the park's past. William Adam designed the hunting lodge in the 1730s for the 5th Duke of Hamilton as kennels for his hounds and horses, though its front was grand enough to pass for a second palace. The lodge's rooms open Sunday to Thursday, 10am to 4.30pm, and the parterre garden keeps its design of 1740. The Duke's Bridge, 80 feet above the Avon, crosses the gorge to the Cadzow Oaks, some of them dated to the mid 1400s, and from it you look across to the ruins of Cadzow Castle, which are closed to visitors. The path to the oaks is 0.8 km each way, about 17 minutes at a gentle pace, with some steps and about 100 feet of climb. Lunch is in the Oaks Café, open every day, with sandwiches, toasties, paninis and home baking. The adventure playground suits toddlers to teenagers.
11 min by car
Low Parks Museum
Low Parks Museum is about 11 minutes' drive away in Hamilton's old town, with free parking and free entry, open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm (last admission 4.30pm). It fills Portland House, built in 1696 and the oldest building left in the town, and the dukes' Riding School of 1837. The galleries follow South Lanarkshire from Hamilton Palace to coal mining and farming, and one tells the story of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), the regiment disbanded in 1968. The Mezzanine Café looks down over the Riding School and serves until 3pm, or 3.30pm on Saturdays. The Hamilton Mausoleum, about ten minutes' walk away, was built as the tomb of the 10th Duke, known as El Magnifico, and was unfinished when he died in 1852. Tours go inside from February to November, when conditions allow, to hear the 15-second echo under its 120-foot dome.
If it rains
The lodge, the visitor centre and its café, and the whole museum are under a roof; on a wet day the walk to the oaks can wait for a dry spell.
Where to stay
Make it a weekend
More days out near Glasgow.
Photographs by James Mckendrick, S W and John MacLeod via Google