Darngaber Castle

..........Near the boundary of Glassford Parish is the site of Darngaber Castle. Now only a mound marks where the castle once stood, although the foundations could still be traced in 1910. They are composed of thin, flat stones, without lime and bear no marks of any tool having been used in their construction. Small vaults were discovered in 1841 which were not attached but drawn together as conduits sometimes are. The Castle is said to have been built by Thomas de Hamilton, third son of Sir John Hamilton of Earnock.

..........There is a conjecture, however, that he only repaired it, and that it was built at the same time as Cadzow Castle, which is said to have been built by Caw, a British Prince of Strathclyde, who flourished about the beginning of the sixth century and was the father of Gilder, our earliest historian and Anewrin, the famous bard. There is no doubt, however, that it was the residence of a minor branch of the Hamilton Family and tradition asserts that Mary Queen of Scots was once the guest of its proprietor, as also that she enjoyed the sport of hawking and hunting in the adjacent fields. The Castle was probably dismantled after the battle of Langside, where the forces of Queen Mary were defeated.
..........Two derivations of the name Darngaber have been furnished, one from the British, signifying "The House between the Waters," from the fact that it is situated on a point of land where two rivulets meet ; the other from the Celtic Darn, "a dark or concealed place," and Caber, or Ghaber, "deer or goats," thus signifying "the hiding place of deer or goats."
..........Thomas Hamilton, who is credited with building or repairing the Castle, was the grandson of Walter Fitz-Gilbert, and was the common ancestor of the Hamiltons of Raploch, Torrance, Cairnduff, Fairholm, Stonehouse, Neilsland, Dechmont, Aitkenhead and Barnes.
........Darngaber was one of the four districts or minor baronies into which the Parish of Hamilton was divided by the Barons of Cadzow in the olden time. It embraced that tract of land lying to the south of Blackbog Burn, extending south and east to the boundaries of the Parish, whilst in length it stretched from Fairholm, on the Avon, west to Maidenlea and well, near to the High-Cross Knowe at Glassford. It had its mill at Thinacres, to which the tenantry were still thirled or astricted.

Plotcock Castle

..........About half a mile eastward from the site of Darngaber Castle is the site of Plotcock Castle. It is on the road to Stonehouse, on the lands of Broomleton, on a jutting point on the banks of the rivulet Plotcock. This fortress is said to have been used as a prison by the Barons of Cadzow for their refractory vassals, or captives taken in war in the days of the feudal chiefs. The place is covered with trees and brushwood and presents a most gloomy appearance, according well with popular superstition that the ravine is tenanted by ghosts, witches and bogles. The name Plotcock is very suggestive of its being haunted by the emmissaries of the evil one, as it is the old Scotch name of that being and is a variation of Plutock or Pluto, who according to heathen mythology, was god of the infernal regions.

The Crooked Stone

..........On the South side of the parish not far from the castle of Darngaber, in a field on the farm of South Crookedstone, is a large stone, measuring 6 feet high and 12 inches square, which used to be leaning considerably to one side, thereby giving the name Crooked Stone to the district. It is of freestone and evidently very ancient. A Mr. Chalmers in 1841 noted these bended stones as Cromlechs of Druidecal origin. It was also reported in 1841 that a neighbouring farmer lately set the stone upright, leaving posterity to wonder why it was called Crooked Stone. There is no inscription on the stone to tell its origin. Whether it is the remnant of a Druid circle, the meeting place of the chieftains who inhabited the neighbouring Castle with their retainers, where the laws of the clan were promulgated and put into execution against the defaulters, or a stone over the grave of a departed hero, there is nothing to guide us.

..........There are many such stones in the mainland and islands of Scotland. Sometimes they appear singly and sometimes in groups of two, three and four. Some contend that they are of Druidical origin. Dr Wilson, the celebrated archaeologist, in the early 1900, is of the opinion that these places were not used as religious temples, but as courts of law and battle rings, where the duel, or judicial battle, was fought out, though this doubtlessly occurred in the invariable union of the priestly and judicial offices in a primitive state of society.
..........An adjacent field and conical mound still retain the names of "The Law," and "Law Knowe," where these judicial deliberations of the chiefs may also have been held.
..........The farm of Crooketstane has been occupied by a family named Torrance for many generations back. They are said to be descended from the House of Torrance in East Kilbride, which is likely enough since Thomas second son of Thomas de Hamilton married the heiress of Torrance and a minor branch of that family may have settled at Crookedstane as retainer of the Darngaber family.

Where Gordon of Earlston was killed

..........A thorn tree, now wasted away, is said to mark the spot where Gordon of Earlston was killed on 22nd June 1679. The spot is near the old Tile Work, Quarter.
..........Wm. Gordon of Earlston the martyr belonged to a family that, before and since, was prominent in the affairs of our country. The founder of the family appears to have come from England in the reign of David the first (1124 - 1153) and obtained from him a grant of lands of Gordon in Berwickshire. From this stock also is descended Lord Aberdeen, the present Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The daughter of one of them, May de Gordon, was the second wife of Walter Fitz-Gilbert, the founder of the Hamilton Family. The family was noted for their piety for many generations. As far back 1377 they were associated with Wyclif, a reformer 100 years before Luther and had a copy of his translation of the Bible into English.
Wm. Gordon, the martyr who was killed by the Royalist troops at Quarter on 22nd June 1679, was born in 1614. He was early associated with the Presbyterian cause and made it a condition on granting leases of his lands that his tenants should observe family worship. He went every Sabbath to worship, at their head. He was a royalist and in favour of the restoration, but he refused to appoint Episcopal incumbents to the churches of which he was patron in Dalry, Ayrshire. He was twice summoned before the Privy Council for keeping conventicles and twice refused to attend. Then he was fined £10,000 and ordered to leave the country. Being dispossessed and not leaving the country, he wandered and eluded his persecutors.
..........His son, Alexander, was at the battle of Bothwell Bridge and William was on his way, with his followers to help the Covenanters there, when the English dragoons met him at Quarter. He was asked to surrender, but refused and was put to death in a most barbarous manner. The English dragoons stripped him of his accoutrements, including a pair of silver spurs, seized his horse and rode back to Hamilton. At Carscallan the Officer demanded from the "guidwife" refreshments for him and party and made a great display of the spoils, including the spurs, using many nasty epithets towards the Covenanters. The "guidwife," who had been left alone in the house, all the others having fled, indignantly exclaimed, "It becomes a better man than you, sir to wear these." William Gordon was buried secretly by his friends in Glassford Churchyard. His great-grandson, Sir John Gordon, Bart., erected in 1772, a monumental pillar, to mark the spot where the. remains of the martyr lie.
.........William Gordon's son, Alexander, who succeeded him and who, has been referred to as having been at the battle of Bothwell Bridge, was born in 1650. He narrowly escaped with his life after the battle. Riding through Hamilton, pursued by the military, he was met by one of his tenants, who persuaded him to dismount and conceal himself. Entering a house where a child was asleep in a cradle, he dressed himself in female cloths and kept rocking the cradle, by which means he escaped. His person was proscribed and his estates given to another. He escaped to Holland, but was captured on board a ship and was sentenced to be beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh. By the intercession of the Duke of Gordon, however he was reprieved and kept in one place or another until the revolution, when he was finally free. His wife, a very excellent woman, Janet Hamilton, was a daughter of Sir Thomas Hamilton of Preston and sister to Robert Hamilton, who commanded the Covenanters at the battles of Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge. He is the hero of the ballad "The Battle of Bothwell Bridge," published by Scott in the "Border Minstrelsy."