Hamilton (Scotland)

This is a Church of Scotland parish church with an Italianate design by William Adam. It was built in 1734 when the 5th Duke of Hamilton demolished its predecessor to expand his park. The central cupola was added in 1841: this meant changing the seating plan, whereupon the 11th Duke fell out with the Burgh Magistrates over who got to sit where. The feud went all the way to the House of Lords, then the UK's supreme court; the Magistrates won.

This traces the local history of South Lanarkshire, with displays on Hamilton Palace, early settlement, working life in agriculture, weaving, and coalmining; plus the history of local regiment the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles).

If colossal tombs can buy glory on earth and in the afterlife, then Alexander 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) is even now hobnobbing with the pharoahs, and especially with Ozymandias. He built a humongous new palace, plus this massive family vault where he and his ancestors came to lie. It was only completed in 1858, five years after his death. In 1921 the area suffered flooding and subsidence from the River Clyde so the coffins were transferred to Bent Cemetery, leaving empty niches, while the palace collapsed. The chapel has a 36 metre-high dome with an oculus, like the Pantheon in Rome; there are magnificent bronze doors and a floor made of different marbles from around the world. Two huge lions guard the entrance to the burial crypt. Until 2014 this building held the world record for the longest reverberating echo, at 15 secs (ie how long it persists, not how long it takes to come back to you). But that's now surpassed by the 112 secs of some disused oil tanks in Invergordon, sic transit gloria mundi.

Extensive park ranged around the 1734 "hunting lodge" by William Adam, basically a huge folly to prettify the landscape. There are great views across to the Campsie Hills and Ben Lomond. The park has almost a square mile of open country and woods, ten miles of routed pathways and a playground, visitor centre and cafe. A grand arched bridge crosses the Avon Water gorge to 16th century Cadzow Castle, an unsafe ruin, so just admire it from the bridge. The name Chatelherault was from a duchy awarded to a 16th-century Hamilton who got Mary Queen of Scots married off (age 16) to the heir to the French throne (age 14). Within months the boy became King Francis II but died, another of history's "what if?" moments. As to the palace, the 19th-century 10th Duke's fortune couldn't match his building ambitions, so to raise money he leased more and more of the land to coal-mining. Harry Lauder and his successors burrowed away like socialist sappers till the palace was undermined and fell down.

This was the birthplace of the explorer and missionary David Livingstone (1813-1873). In youth he grubbed a living in the cotton mills to support his family, but was able to study and qualify in medicine. He intended to go to China as a missionary, but the Opium Wars made travel there unfeasible, and he turned to Africa hoping to combat the slave trade. Legitimate trade would help overturn it, to which end he sought the source of the Nile. This museum tells his story. In Hamilton there are plaques to his memory in St James' Church and at 117 Burnbank Road, where he lived in 1862; that house still stands.

This has flat racing from May to October.

"The Accies" were relegated in 2025 so they play soccer in Scottish League One, the third tier. Their home ground New Douglas Park (capacity 6000, all-seater) is 200 yards north of Hamilton West Station, a mile northwest of town centre.