Haggs Castle is a fine example of a large 16th century tower house

Tower house

A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation.-History:Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountain or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strategic points with reduced forces...

, located in the neighbourhood of Pollokshields

Pollokshields

Pollokshields is a district in the Southside of Glasgow, Scotland. It is a conservation area which was developed in Victorian times according to a plan promoted by the original landowners, the Stirling-Maxwells of Pollok, whose association with the area goes as far back as...

, in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The richly decorated building was restored in the 19th century, and today is once more occupied as a residence.

History

The carved stone above the door records that Haggs was built in 1585 by Sir John Maxwell of Pollok and his wife Margaret Conyngham (Cunningham). It was built to replace the Maxwell's former residence, the Laigh Castle, a 14th century building which stood to the west. Although built as the Maxwell's main residence, it was later used as a jointure house, or dower house

Dower house

On an estate, a dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the estate-owner. The widow, often known as the "dowager" usually moves into the dower house from the larger family house on the death of her husband if the heir is married, and upon his marriage if he...

, being occupied by the lord's widow. The Maxwells, a covenanting

Covenanter

The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...

 family, were fined for nonconformist activities, although the change of government resulting from the revolution of 1688

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

 saved them from paying up. In 1753 Haggs in turn was replaced as a residence and abandoned when Pollok House

Pollok House

Pollok House is the ancestral home of the Maxwell family, located in Pollok Country Park, Glasgow, Scotland.The house - built in 1752 and designed by William Adam - was gifted to the City of Glasgow in 1966 by Dame Anne Maxwell Macdonald, whose family had owned the estate for almost 700 years...

 was completed.

The castle basement was later used as a smithy. In the 1850s the remains were consolidated, and in the 1860s the castle was restored for the Maxwell's factor

Factor (Scotland)

In Scotland a factor is a person or firm charged with superintending or managing properties and estates -- sometimes where the owner or landlord is unable to or uninterested in attending to such details personally, or in tenements in which several owners of individual flats contribute to the...

. Further restorations and additions were undertaken by Sir John Stirling-Maxwell

John Maxwell Stirling-Maxwell

Sir John Maxwell Stirling-Maxwell, 10th Baronet, of Pollok, KT was a Scottish Tory politician and philanthropist.The eldest son of Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet and Lady Anna Maria Leslie-Melville, second daughter of David Leslie-Melville, 8th Earl of Leven and Elizabeth Anne Campbell,...

 in 1899-1900. A renovation scheme was prepared by architects MacGibbon and Ross

MacGibbon and Ross

David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross were Scottish architects. Their practice, MacGibbon and Ross was established in 1872 and continued until 1914...

, although their plans for a faithful restoration were not followed.

In 1943 the castle was requisitioned by the military, and was later divided into flats. In 1972 the Glasgow Corporation bought the castle, converting it to serve as the Museum of Childhood

Museum of Childhood

There are several museums called the Museum of Childhood:*Museum of Childhood , Scotland*Museum of Childhood , New Hampshire, United States*V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London, England, run by the Victoria and Albert Museum...

. When this closed in 1998, the house once more became a private dwelling.

Architecture

Haggs Castle is an altered L-plan tower, of 4 storeys. The main block measures around 17m by 7.2m. The vaulted basement contained two chambers and a kitchen with a large fireplace. The main stair led up to the first floor, where a private room was located behind the main hall. Smaller corbelled stairs led to the upper storeys, which included a square caphouse above the stair tower. Square and round gun loops were located around the tower. The most striking feature is the carved decoration, including cable-moulded string courses, moulded corbels, and the carving over the door.

In the 19th century, the upper parts of the walls were rebuilt with larger dormer windows. Other windows were also enlarged, and the stair wing was rebuilt. Most obviously, a new entrance and stair was added to the south, and a new wing to the north.