Partick Castle Uncovered
GUARD Archaeology Ltd, working on behalf of Scottish Water on infrastructure works for a new development in the west end of Glasgow, have uncovered partial remains of stone structures and earthworks on the postulated site of the medieval Bishops of Glasgow's country residence at Partick. The lands of Partick were granted to the bishops by King David I in 1136, and although they remained in church hands until the 1560s, very little is known of the buildings that stood there through those four centuries. In 1362 the residence was described as a manor-house, but it is not clear how the site developed thereafter.
After the turmoil following the Reformation, a tower house was built close to the River Kelvin in 1611, reputedly on the site of the earlier bishops' residence, and perhaps using some of its stonework. This tower house was itself ruinous by the 1780s and was finally demolished in the 1830s, but several engravings and sketches survive which show that it was a four-storey defensible structure typical of the period.
Initial finds recovered from the site indicate occupation in the medieval and post-medieval periods and the careful design of the development will allow for some of the more significant remains to be preserved in situ under new buildings.