Mearns Castle is a fifteenth-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...

 in Newton Mearns

Newton Mearns

Newton Mearns is a suburban town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland. It lies southwest of Glasgow City Centre on the main road to Ayrshire, above sea level. It has a population of approximately 22,637.The town is part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation...

, East Renfrewshire

East Renfrewshire

East Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975 it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas of Renfrewshire and Inverclyde...

, to the south of 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...

. It is a Category A listed building. The castle has been restored and is now part of the Maxwell Mearns Castle Church. It also gives its name to nearby Mearns Castle High School

Mearns Castle High School

For schools of the same name, see Castle High School.Mearns Castle High School is a secondary school situated on Waterfoot Road in Newton Mearns, an affluent commuter town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland roughly seven miles from Glasgow. Built in 1978, pupils from Mearns Primary, Eaglesham Primary,...

.

History

The castle was built by Herbert, Lord Maxwell, under a royal warrant issued in 1449, and remained with the family until the fifth Lord was required by James VI

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 to deliver it up to the crown. It was sold to Sir George Maxwell of Nether Mearns in the middle of the seventeenth century, and later passed to the Shaw-Stewart family. In 1971 the remaining stories of the tower were converted to a link between two Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

buildings.

Description

The castle was originally a four-storey rectangular tower, and parts of the original corbelling remain. There is a vaulted basement room, approached from the main entrance. The first-floor hall, which is also vaulted, is approached by a straight mural stair; is has stone window seats, and once had a minstrels’ gallery. The original arched entrance is now walled up.