Scottish Castles Photo Library
- Mearns Castle, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire
There are not many 15th century castles (with origins going back to the 13th century) left in one piece near Glasgow. Or one that is still serving a useful function - as part of a church, with the Scottish historian and novelist, Nigel Tranter, voicing praise. But that is Mearns Castle in a nutshell.
Mearns Castle is located at the top of a steep ridge in what is now the dormitory district of Newton Mearns, part of the urban sprawl of Glasgow, but part of East Renfrewshire. The tower rises to four storeys and it was partially once enclosed by a wall, with a moat. These details were spelt out in a document by King James II in 1449, when the monarch granted a licence to erect a castle with these specific requirements: "to build a castle or fortalice in the barony of Mearns in Renfrewshire: to surround and fortify it with walls and ditches: to strengthen it by iron gates and to erect on top of it all warlike apparatus necessary for its defence." The castle has a vaulted basement and a vaulted first floor hall - the entrance was once at this level, by means of a stair.
The land was originally owned by the Pollocks (whose name is perpetuated in the Glasgow housing estate of Pollok) but in 1300 became the property of the powerful Maxwells of Caerlaverock (far to the south, on the Solway Firth) by marriage to a Pollock heiress. It then passed to the Maxwells of Nether Pollok in 1648 and then the Stewarts of Blackhall in 1660.
Despite fortified homes becoming less and less a necessity, Mearns Castle survived - and was even used occassionally for parties and balls by a troop of local cavalry in the 1840s. It was still in a resonable condition in 1964 when Nigel Tranter wrote about Mearns Castle in one of his about fortified houses in Scotland. Ten years later the minister of the Maxwell Mearns Castle Parish Church, which had been built beside the castle in the 20th century, wrote to Tranter to describe the plan to create a chapel in the castle's vaulted hall - with an organ in the minstrel's gallery! Tranter was enthusiastic - and suggested to others "Go thou and do likewise!"
The unique position of Mearns Castle is perhaps seen at its best in the picture below - with modern bungalows of affluent Newton Mearns nestling underneath!
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