What is recorded here

Cadzow Castle is a ruined tower house in South Lanarkshire, built around 1540 by the Hamilton family to resist artillery, though it surrendered within two days when the Earl of Lennox besieged it in 1570. Mary, Queen of Scots, stayed there after escaping Lochleven in 1568, and the castle was later destroyed as retaliation for Hamilton support of her cause. The visible ruins sit beside an older earthwork from the first Cadzow castle, a wooden hunting lodge used by David I and his successors. Today the structure leans in scaffolding, its gun loops still wide enough to show the kind of fire that broke it.

Scotland's National Record of the Historic Environment records Cadzow Castle as Bank (earthwork)(s) (period Unassigned), Carved Stone (period Unassigned), Ditch(s) (period Unassigned). The official map says its point is accurate as follows: NGR given to the nearest 10m. The record does not by itself mean that the public may enter the place.

Cadzow Castle was a medieval stronghold associated with the Douglas family, prominent in Scottish history during the 13th and 14th centuries. It is remembered for its strategic importance in the Wars of Scottish Independence and for being the site of the murder of James Douglas, the "Good James," in 1308.

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