Estate at centre of family conflict
A Covenanter army had camped at the Haggs estate – which included the Viewpark Glen land – as well as Shawhead Muir and Old Monkland Kirk in the days before the Battle of Bothwell Bridge on June 22, 1679.
The army’s commander Robert Hamilton was based at Haggs house, later to be named Rosehall and then Douglas Support.
Jardine’s Book of Martyr’s states that Haggs house stood two miles north west from Bothwell Church.
The book quotes a description of the house dated around 1700: “It is a very handsome house with a prodigious planting and parks. It now belongs to Sir James Hamilton of Rosehall.”
Notes by a Dr Gilbert Bell, dated 2010, contained in a reprinted Ordnance Survey map ‘North Calder and Douglas Support 1896’ states that the Douglas Support house “appears to be a grand sprawling mansion set amid what one imagines to be delightful policies with a splendid long drive leading to the house.” The house was known as Haggs until 1710 when Archibald Hamilton, who bought the property in 1703, decided to change its name to Rosehall.
Dr Bell adds: “He had become a baronet and was MP for Lanarkshire, so he no doubt thought being Hamilton of Rosehall sounded better than being Hamilton of Haggs.”
Rosehall was named Douglas Support in the late 18th century following a family legal wrangle.
When the Duke of Douglas died in 1761, there was no direct descendant to inherit the estate and a legal battle between the Duke’s widow Duchess Peggy and the Duke of Hamilton began.
Duchess Peggy supported the probable son of late Duke’s sister, Archibald Stewart, as the rightful heir.
The case was, however, lost at the Court of Session, but on appeal to the House of Lords Stewart won.
He did not become Duke of Douglas, but did inherit the
Douglas Estates and became Lord Douglas of Douglas.
When Duchess Peggy died in 1774 she left funds so that her own nephew Archibald Douglas could have an estate of his own.
This property’s name was changed from Rosehall to Douglas Support to show her support for the Douglas cause.
The Rev Sholto Douglas Campbell-douglas (Lord Blythswood) inherited the estate in the late 1860s.
When he died in 1908 his brother Major General Barrington Bulkley Douglas Campbelldouglas succeeded to the title and estates.
That year the Douglas Support Estate mansion was destroyed by fire and rebuilt, but the rebuilt building had to be demolished.
There was a network of mineshafts within the estate – and a mineshaft which ran under the mansion house had caused its foundations to sink.
It was later abandoned and demolished in 1939.