The history of iconic Hamilton landmark
Hamilton Mausoleum was built as a tomb and monument to Alexander the 10th Duke of Hamilton around 1842.
It was built at a cost of about £33,000 (£1.2 million today)
The duke decided that he wanted to have a proper resting place for himself and his family, but passed away before the building was complete in 1852.
The mausoleum stands at 128ft high with the main room originally being intended for a chapel, but the 15-second echo prevented these plans from going ahead.
Below the crypt is where private ceremonies were held, and the duke moved his ancestors’bodies there in 1852 from the old Collegiate Church.
When Alexander died later that year, he was laid to rest in an Egyptian sarcophagus.
He was then laid on a black marble plinth in the chapel, which is still inside the mausoleum today, and work on the mausoleum was completed.
In the years to follow, permission was granted for the area around the mausoleum to be mined for coal, which resulted in the foundations becoming weak and the building to subside and sink 18ft.
By the 1920s, there were fears that mining subsidence would damage the mausoleum and as a result, the bodies of Alexander and his ancestors were removed and reburied in the Bent Cemetery in Hamilton.