Auchinraith near Blantyre, photographed in 1870 by Thomas Annan. The mansion was designed by architect David Hamilton and built in 1809 to replace an older one, known as Whistleberry, on the other side of Park Burn, at the bottom right of the photograph.
The Coulters, a well-known Glasgow family, had lived at Auchinraith during the 18th century. John Coulter was a West Indies merchant and Lord Provost of Glasgow in 1736. Lowrie Coulter was famously caricatured by Kay in 1793 and described by J F S Gordon as the (self-proclaimed) "wisest man in Glasgow."
Auchinraith was acquired in 1831 by Robert Douglas Alston, an insurance broker and an officer in the "Glasgow Volunteer Sharpshooters" at the time of the "Radical Rising" of 1820. It was subsequently acquired by Alexander Glasgow, a retired merchant; by another Glaswegian, Robert Ker and (in 1877) by George Lamb.
Reference: Sp Coll Dougan Add. 73
Glasgow University Library, Special Collections
Keywords:
Auchinraith House, bridges, country houses, gardens, mansions, trees, Whistleberry House