On Tuesday we made our first visit to Crookston Castle in Glasgow. Funnily enough, its in the suburb of Crookston, named after an earlier castle built there by Sir Robert de Croc !

Although its a ruin now, its still in decent shape. The vaulted lower chamber is still intact, and you can climb the tower and get some lovely views over Glasgow.

Built in the early 1400s, the castle is perched on a small hilltop, and surrounded by a defensive ditch, which would have given it quite good protection.

An earlier fort existed on the site dating from the 12th century, now referred to as Croc's Castle.

There was more to this castle than I expected. Its not well advertised and I've never heard of anyone talking about it before. Its free to enter and we were the only ones there (which may not be surprising on a gloomy tuesday in January !).

The vaulted lower room was quite cool - the vaulted structure looks pretty impressive, and I guess it had to be, as it supported a lot of the castle above it.

A large part of the castle is now gone as can be seen here, with various fireplaces exposed and evidence of other vaulted roofs being in place.

You can still access a number of the rooms and staircases quite safely, with it being possible to climb to the top of the tower. The climb was rather interesting including a completely dark stretch of spiral staircase followed by some steep iron ladders.

And from the tower you get some pretty nice views over Glasgow.

Interestingly the castle has a potential link to Mary Queen of Scots (our most famous/infamous monarch). Allegedly she had a meeting with her future husband, Lord Darnley, here in 1565 - who's family owned the castle. And Sir Walter Scot wrote about her watching a battle in the area in 1568.

And the notice board above helps to show more detail of the castle and what it may have looked like in its prime - fairly large !

The defensive ditch is still very clear, as can be see in the pic above taken from the tower.

And above is another view of it taken from down at ditch level - it clearly circles the whole site, and is only broken by the road into the castle.

I have to say we really enjoyed the visit. I was expecting it to be a lot less intact, and with little in the way of interesting history (because it is never really talked about) and was hence very pleasantly surprised.

So all in all, well worth the visit - and quite nice to have it all to ourselves !

An impressive place in the midst of a suburb of Glasgow - and another castle ticked of the list !

I originally posted this content on HIVE on Friday 27/01/23 (here).