The 15th-century ruins of Cathcart Castle

Cathcart Castle, located in Linn Park in Glasgow, Scotland, was a 15th-century castle. The head of the Cathcart family, Lord Cathcart, was raised to the peerage around the time the castle was built, but it passed to the Semples in 1546. The castle was abandoned in 1740 when the Semples moved out to a nearby new house. The 1st Earl Cathcart bought back his ancestral home in 1814, although with the intention of selling off the stone rather than living in it.

The castle was built on the rocky north-east bank of the White Cart Water and comprised a rectangular tower house of five storeys with a vaulted basement. The tower had round corner towers and a twin-towered gatehouse.

It is unlikely that Mary, Queen of Scots, spent the night before the Battle of Langside at Cathcart Castle. The Semples were supporters of Mary's enemies and would have captured her before the battle had started, and the topography of the nearby Court Knowe would have made viewing the battle impossible. Archaeological investigations uncovered a fragmentary plaster armorial from the 1630s, with the arms of Bryce Semple and Jean Lauder of Hatton.

The castle was torn down in 1980, and the remaining ruins are now a Scheduled Monument.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons