A Memorial Garden at Strathclyde Park - geograph

Plaque in the Memorial Garden - geograph

The other plaque in the Memorial Garden - geograph

Early one morning in Strathclyde Park (geograph 5694578)

Bothwellhaugh was a Scottish coal mining

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

housing Hamilton Palace Colliery workers and their families. Locals referred to the village as The Pailis. It was located near to the towns of Motherwell, Bellshill and Hamilton in

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotl ...

, being occupied from the mid-1880s until it was demolished in 1965.

Pre-mining History

The remains of the Bothwellhaugh Roman Fort and a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

bath house were found in the park; it is around a day's march from the Antonine Wall. James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, became notorious for being the assassin of

James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray (c. 1531 – 23 January 1570) was a member of the House of Stewart as the illegitimate son of King James V of Scotland. A supporter of his half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots, he was the regent of Scotland for hi ...

, Regent of Scotland, at

Linlithgow Linlithgow (; gd, Gleann Iucha, sco, Lithgae) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a ...

in 1570.

Mining Village

There were two

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s on the site operated by the ''Bent Colliery Company''. Housing was developed from the late 1880s until 1905. Before WW1 over 2000 tonnes of coal a day were being produced by over 1000 miners. The mining from this pit led to the demolition of

Hamilton Palace Hamilton Palace was a country house in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The former seat of the Dukes of Hamilton, it dated from the 14th century and was subsequently much enlarged in the 17th and 19th centuries.River Clyde meant that pumping became a major cost. The houses had fallen into poor state of repair and sewage was becoming a problem. The site of the village has now been flooded to produce Strathclyde Loch, within Strathclyde Country Park. about ten miles south-east of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. The Bothwellhaugh name is retained in a set of football/rugby pitches operated by

North Lanarkshire Council North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...

, near to the M&D's amusement park and the ''Raith Interchange'' of the

M74 motorway The A74(M) and M74 form a major motorway in Scotland, connecting it to England. The routes connect the M8 motorway in central Glasgow to the Scottish-English border at Gretna. In conjunction with their southward continuation, the M6 motorw ...

/ A725.

Memorial

There is a cairn at Strathclyde Park to remember the village. Former residents of the village hold an annual reunion, meeting at the cairn. A memorial to the village and visitor centre has been proposed at the old Raith farm workers cottage.

Bibliography

''Bothwellhaugh: A Lanarkshire mining community, 1884-1965'' Robert Duncan, Workers Educational Association, 1986

References

External links

Lost Village of Bothwellhaugh
video (10 mins)
Bothwellhaugh Ex-Residents Committee
{{coord, 55.799203, -4.043928, type:city(200)_region:GB, display=title Former populated places in Scotland Ghost towns in Scotland 1880s establishments in Scotland 1965 disestablishments in Scotland Populated places established in the 1880s Populated places disestablished in 1965 History of North Lanarkshire Mining communities in Scotland Former mines in Scotland