Cambusnethan Priory

C A MBUSNE T H AN P R IO RY

C A MBUSNE T H AN P R IO RY A photographic essay

All images © Colin McLean FSAScot LRPS December 2016

Cambusnethan Priory The current building is not the first on this site; it was preceded by at least two others. First, a 14th century tower constructed by Robert Baird. Then, in the late 17th century, Sir John Harper rebuilt the earlier tower as a mansion house. This was extended in 1810, but destroyed in a fire of 1816. The estate had transferred to the ownership of the Lockhart family of Castlehill, and it was Sir Robert Sinclair-Lockhart who commissioned James Gillespie Graham (1776-1855) in 1819 to design what we see now, recognised as one of the finest of Graham’s many Gothic Revival country houses. It was this new design that adopted the name Cambusnethan Priory.

Description (source: HES listed building description) 2-storey with sunk basement, 9-bay, symmetrical, rectangular-plan,Tudor revival priory-style mansion house.

Buttressed crocketed pinnacles and gabled central block with porte cochere, flanking wings with octagonal corner towers. Yellow ashlar sandstone. Base course, cill band to upper storey, corbelled cornice; stugged hoodmoulds to openings, pointed arch windows to ground floor, rectangular windows to upper floor.

Condition The Priory was converted to a hotel in 1976, and this included the insertion of major steel beams - now clearly visible - into the ground floor ceiling to create a banqueting hall. It has escaped demolition orders and has been the subject of a series of successful and unsuccessful planning applications; the most recent in 2001. As the photographs show, the building’s present condition is shocking, with significant deterioration, including the collapse of one part of the front facade, since a fire of c1985. Now roofless and apparently unstable, its survival must be in question. It is A-Listed and is on the Buildings At Risk Register where its condition is described as “critical”.

A group called the Friends of Cambusnethan Priory Trust has been formed to attempt to save the building, but is clearly hampered by a lack of resources.

References 1. The Buildings of Scotland, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire,Yale University Press 2016, pp 160-161 2. Historic Environment Scotland, Listed Building Description http://portal.historicenvironment.scot/ designation/LB47593 3. Buildings at Risk Register, Reference no 1561, http://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/search/keyword/cambusnethan/event_id/896564/building_name/cambusnethan-priory-castlehill-road-wishaw 4. Friends of Cambusnethan Priory Trust http://www.cambusnethanpriory.com

73 Whitehaugh Park, Peebles EH45 9DB, Scotland 07980 750301 colin@colinmcleanphotography.com www.colinmcleanphotography.com