|
|
|
|
|
|
Cadzow Oaks, Hamilton High Parks, Hamilton,
South Lanarkshire |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
© RCAHMS |
|
General view of oak trees
The ancient woodlands around the Avon Water were
one of the great assets of the royal hunting estate of Cadzow, which
came into the possession of the progenitors of the Hamilton family
in the early 14th century. In the later Middle Ages an enclosed
game reserve was formed across an angle of the west bank of the
river, and in the first half of the 16th century this well-wooded
area provided the setting for the relatively short-lived 'Castle
in the Wood of Hamilton', now known as Cadzow Castle. Hunting remained
a major feature of the forest but by the 1730s when the elegant
hunting lodge of Châtelherault was built on the opposite (eastern)
bank of the river, foxes were tending to replace deer as the main
prey of the hounds and mounted hunters, the deer tending merely
to become 'graceful appendages to the landscape'.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is one of the surviving groups of oak trees
in Hamilton High Parks, standing close to the earthwork remains
of a small prehistoric promontory fort. With their bulbous and gnarled
trunks, these trees constitute a remnant of what is probably the
most ancient surviving oak woodland in Scotland. Dendrochronology
(scientific tree-ring analysis) has ascribed them to the 1460s,
a date which roughly corresponds with the creation of the deer park
and which makes these trees the oldest standing - and living! -
features of the era of the Hamilton family in this district. Remarkably,
these venerable oaks date from the decade after the foundation of
the collegiate church by the 1st Lord Hamilton, nowadays an even
more distant memory than the one-time palace.
In the mid-19th century, the woodland scenery
of Hamilton High Parks provided much inspiration to the Cadzow Artists,
a school of landscape painters which included such renowned artists
as Horatio McCulloch (1805-67) and Samuel Bough (1822-78).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed
view of the palace |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aerial
view of the site |
|
Layout
of Hamilton Palace Gardens |
|
William
Pettigrew plan, 1813 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sketch of south lawn, 1824 |
|
Engraving
by John Slezer |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|