Glorious Gardens: Waygateshaw House

Growing up in the Clyde Valley

Filed under History & Archaeology

- Sue Hewer, Scotland’s Gardens and Designed Landscape Heritage volunteer

All too rarely do we learn about the past of a house as seen through the eyes of someone who actually lived there. In this respect, we are doubly blessed at Waygateshaw. Lady Dione Palmer was a child there in the 1930s and 40s and has happy memories of the estate. Some forty years later, Catherine Ratter Scott viewed the house in a different light.

Pont's 'Glasgow and the county of Lanark' (Pont 34), 1596
Blaeu's Atlas Major 5, Volume 6: The nether ward of Clyds-dail and Glasco, 1654
Roy's Military Survey of Scotland (Lowlands), 1752-55, ©British Library
Forrest's 1816 The county of Lanark from actual survey
Ordnance Survey six-inch (1st edition), Lanarkshire Sheet XXIV. Surveyed 1858, published 1864
Ordnance Survey six-inch (3rd edition), Lanarkshire Sheet XXIV.NE 6-inch Carluke Dalserf Lesmahagow. Revised 1910, published 1913
Lady Dione Palmer’s sketch of the landscape as she recalled it

Lady Dione seems to have been particularly fond of the 'special' trees in the garden - a pair of beautifully trimmed conical yews, 'the maidens of Waygateshaw', and her grandfather's pride and joy. There was also the large, spreading horse chestnut that had their tree house in it, as well as an old oak tree which contained an owl's nest in it and supported their swing. Lady Dione also remembers the 'horse pond' or 'carriage wash' at the side of the drives.

Catherine has other 'horsey' memories of Waygateshaw. She arrived when her father purchased the house and 27 acres of land in 1989 to set up a business training racehourses. A large stable yard was built, gallops were constructed on the advice of Jonjo O'Neill and Red Rum was a one-time resident. Whilst she loved the site of the house, she was convinced that it was haunted!

Waygateshaw House today, SGLH, 2016
Photos Photographs from 1935-40, provided by Lady Dione Palmer
The Kitchen Garden today, SGLH, 2016
The overgrown pathway leading to a paddock below the house today, SGLH, 2016
The 1980s stable block, SGLH, 2016

Waygateshaw may not be the grandest of the sites in the Clyde Valley. However, the evidence that it provides of the effects of economic and social change on the landscape is a valuable contribution to the history of the area.

Read more by clicking the Glorious Gardens: Waygateshaw House report on Canmore link under 'Find out more'.

This research was carried out as part of the Glorious Gardens volunteer project, which is managed by Scotland's Garden & Landscape Heritage and delivered by Northlight Heritage, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund supported Clyde and Avon Valley Landscape Partnership and from Historic Environment Scotland. To find out more about the project, explore the other museum items below.