Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

BOTHWELL
stone in the eastern district; ■whilst Legbrannoek ironstone
mine and numerous collieries are at work throughout
the parish, in which are the iron-works of Mossend,
Carnbroe, and Chapelhall. The soil, for the most part
clay or loam, is of great fertility along the Clyde ; and
the whole area, with trivial exceptions, is arable.
Chief among Bothwell's antiquities and historic scenes
are its ruined Castle, 1 J mile WNW of the parish church ;
Bothwell Brig, 5£ furlongs SSE ; the site of Bothwell-
haugh, lj mile ESE, that gave his patronymic* to
James Hamilton, Murray's assassin at Linlithgow
(1570) ; and, 3 furlongs E by N of Bothwellhaugh, a
narrow, high, unparapeted Roman bridge across the
Calder, with a single arch of 20 feet span. Built early
in the 14th century, Bothwell Castle still covers a space
of 234 by 99 feet, and has walls that in places are 60
feet high and more than 15 thick; special features being
the great courtyard, the two round flanking towers upon
the E, the loftier western keep, vestiges of the chapel
and the fosse, and a circular dungeon, ' Wallace's Beef-
tower.' Hither, on 22 Aug. 1S03, came Dorothy Word-
sworth, with Coleridge and her brother William, and in
her Journal (ed. by Princ. Shairp, 1S74) she thus de-
scribed the stately fragment, finest, it may be, of its
kind in Scotland : — ' We saw the ruined castle embosomed
in trees, passed the house, and soon found ourselves on
the edge of a steep brow immediately above and over-
looking the course of the river Clyde through a deep
hollow between woods and green steeps. We had ap-
proached at right angles from the main road to the place
over a flat, and had seen nothing before us but a nearly
level country terminated by distant slopes, the Clyde
hiding himself in his deep bed. It was exceedingly
delightful to come thus unexpectedly upon such a beauti-
ful region. The castle stands nobly, overlooking the
Clyde. 'When we came up to it, I was hurt to see that
flower-borders had taken place of the natural overgrow-
ings of the ruin, the scattered stones and wild plants.
It is a large and grand pile of red freestone, harmonis-
ing perfectly with the rocks of the river, from which, no
doubt, it has been hewn. . . . On the opposite
bank, which is finely wooded with elms and other trees,
are the remains of Blantyre Priory.' From David de
Olifard the lands of Bothwell came about 1242 by mar-
riage to the Hurrays, to whom belonged the patriot Sir
Andrew, Wallace's stanchest friend, and his son and
namesake, the Regent, who in 1337 recovered his castle
from the English, and ' levelled it to the ground,' it
having been the seat of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pem-
broke and governor of Scotland (1306), and having twice
received an English king — Edward I. in 1301, Edward
III. in 1336. From the Murraysit passed to the Doug-
lases, likewise by marriage, in 1361, and, after their
forfeiture (1455), was bestowed by James III. in 1485
on his minion Sir John Ramsay ; next, in 1488, on
Patrick Hepburn, Lord Hales, who was created Earl of
Bothwell (a title extinct since 1624), but who four years
later exchanged this castle and its domain for Liddes-
dale and Hermitage with Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl
of Angus. Thus Bothwell reverted to the Douglases,
and at present is owned by the Earl of Home, whose
mother (d. 1877) was heiress of the fourth and last
Lord Douglas (d. 1857). Bothwell Brig was formerly
but 12 feet broad, and rose with a steep incline of 20 feet,
its crown being guarded by a strong gateway ; but this
had long disappeared when, in 1826, 22 feet were added
to its original width, and the whole structure was other-
wise modernised. Here, on June 22, 1679 — 20 days after
Sharp's murder on Magus Muir, and 11 days after their
victory at Drumclog — 4000 Covenanters were routed by
Charles II. 's forces under the Duke of Monmouth. A
helpless rabble divided against themselves, they had
hardly one man of military experience ; but Hackston of
Rathillet held the bridge long enough to show how in
competent hand3 it was impregnable. That post once
• For a refutation of the current belief that Bothwollhaugh was
eimed by Hamilton, and of that tale of Murray's cruelty whereon
Scott based his ballad Oadzow OaetU, see Hill Burton's HUtor//,
toI. v., p. 18, note.
180
BOTRIPHNIE
lost, the royalists crossed unopposed, and, slaying 500,
chiefly in the pursuit, made twice that number prisoners,
who were penned up in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edin-
burgh, as told in Scott's Old Mortality (1816) and W.
Aiton's History of the Rencounter at Drumclog and the
Battle at Bothwell Bridge (Hamilton, 1821). Two places
still remaining to be noticed are a natural cave by Cle-
land House, once furnished with an iron gate and a
fireplace ; and New Orbiston, near Bellshill, the scene
in 1827 of Robert Owen's short-lived Socialist experi-
ment. ' Babylon ' — so it was nicknamed in derision —
was designed to embrace 1200 persons, each with 1 acre
apiece. The now demolished buildings cost £12,000,
and even then were incomplete ; their inmates never
exceeded 60 adults and 120 children (Booth's Life of B,
Owen,
Modern Bothwell Castle, to the E of its ruined pre-
decessor, is a plain Queen Anne edifice, consisting of a
centre and two wings ; and other mansions are Bothwell
Bank and Bothwell Park ; Thorniewood and Viewpark
near Uddingston ; Tannoehside, Carnbroe House, Wood-
hall, and Woodville, up the North Calder; Thankerton,
Stevenston, and Lauchope, in the interior ; and Cleland
House, Jerviston, Carfin House, Carfin Hall, Orbiston,
and Douglas Park, down the South Calder. In all, 153
proprietors hold each an annual value of from £20 to
£50, 101 of from £50 to £100, 49 of from £100 to £500,
and 22 of £500 and upwards, these last including the
Earl of Home (61,943 acres in the shire, valued at
£29,486 per annum), the Woodhall Estate Co. (2398
acres, £8634), the Uddingston Oil Co. (13 acres, £1676),
the Mossend Iron Co. (3 acres, £2790), Col. W. Hozier
of Tannoehside (655 acres, £47S7), and the trustees of
R. Douglas of Orbiston (651 acres, £2351), of W. Jolly
of Stevenston (405 acres, £1825), and of J. Meiklam of
Carnbroe (1019 acres, £4094).
In the presbytery of Hamilton and synod of Glasgow
and Ayr, the civil parish was up to 1871 divided into
the quoad sacra parishos of Holytown (pop. 11,641)
and Bothwell (pop. 9824; stipend, £560); but the latter
has since been subdivided by the erection in 1874 of
Uddingston (pop. 5725), and in 1878 of Bellshill (pop.
4294). In 1891 there were 18 schools under a board for
the entire parish, which, with total accommodation for
6684 children, had an average attendance of 4564, and
grants amounting to £4417, 9s. 7d. Valuation £127, 942.
Pop. of civil parish (1801) 3017, (1831) 5545, (1841)
11,132, (1851) 15,265, (1861) 17,903, (1871) 19,292,
(1881) 25,450, (1891) 31,484; of registration district
(1881) 15,017, (1891) 19,843.— Ord. Sur., sh. 31, 1867.
Botriphnie, a parish of Banffshire, with Auchindachy
station at its NE angle, and Drummuir station (2J miles
SW) towards its centre, this latter being 6J miles SW of
the post-town Keith, and 4^ NE of Dufftown, and stand-
ing near the church and post office. Bounded N by the
Elginshire section of Boharm, NE by Keith, SE by
Cairnie and Glas3 in Aberdeenshire, S and SW by Mort-
lach, and W by Boharm, Botriphnie extends across the
county at its narrowest, and has a length from N to S of
from 3J to 5J miles, a width from E to W of from 4 mile
to 4| miles, and a land area of 9459 acres. Loch Park
(1 mile x 100 yards) lies on the SW border ; and rising
near it, the Isla runs 4 miles to the NE boundary
through a beautiful strath, now traversed by the Great
North of Scotland railway. Above Auchindachy it is
joined by the Burn of Davidston, which traces all the
eastern boundary ; and itself divides the parish into
two fairly equal halves. Glenisla sinks from 600 to 480
feet above sea-level, and elevations in the western half
are Rosarie (415 feet) on the Morayshire frontier, the
Hill of Towie (1108), Sheanspark Wood (1041), Knock-
hillock (1025), and Sunnybrae (923) ; in the eastern half,
Woodend (984), the Hill of Bellyhack (1009), and Hag-
gieshaw Wood (1008) — one and all overtopped by Knockan
(1219), culminating just beyond the western torder, and
by Carran Hill (1366) and the Tips of Clunymore (1296)
beyond the southern. Most of the area is either arable
or planted (with alder, birch, etc.); and in Glonisla a
largo extent of fertile haugh-land was reclaimed, fifty