This post is taken from Gordon Mason's original post on the Friends of Cambusnethan Priory Facebook Page (July 2014).
Cambusnethan was the site of a large tower which appears in Bleau’s Atlas Novus of the 17th century as Kawslethead. Careful examination of Pont’s late 16th century map shows a cluttered and indistict area at this location, out of which sneaks the name Cambusnethan. Bleau’s map, which was based on Pont, allocates the name to a building which corresponds to the 17th century tower at Castlehill. The Barony of Cambusnethan is said to have been held by William Finnemund at the beginning of the 12th century. Ralph de Clare was in possession in c1185, when he granted Kelso Abbey the right to grind its grain before anyone else at his mill at Cambusnethan. In addition he granted them the church of Cambusnethan and ‘the teinds, multure, and exit’ of the mill. In the same year we find favour returned and Ralph is granted the right to build a private chapel. Sometime before 1226 he granted the land of Garrion to Paisley Abbey.
The Barony of Cambusnethan was apparently granted to the Baird’s by Robert I. Sir Robert Baird erected a large square tower of four storeys in the 14th century, and it is said to have remained ‘entire’ until 1661. Sir Robert was forfeited and executed for treason in 1340, possibly a result of having favoured Edward Bailliol in his attempt to take the throne from David II.
King David then granted Cambusnethan to Sir John Edmonstone. His heiress married John, Lord Sommerville who granted it to his son John whose descendants held it for several centuries. Many portions of the Barony were feued out to form separtate estates, or sold off to such as the Hamiltons, who bought Wishaw, and the Stewarts who purchased Coltness. In 1520 John Sommerville of Cambusnethan backed the wrong side in the Edinburgh skirmish known as Cleanse the Causeway. In defeat he was declared forfeit. The victorious Earl of Arran, on the other hand, saw James V award Cambusnethan to Sir James Hamilton of Finnart in 1524. Sommerville was restored to his estate twenty years later. What remained of the estate passed to Sommerville of Drum on the death of the last of the Cambusnethan line in 1659. He then sold it to Sir John Harper in 1661 who found the tower in such a state of decay that he had it pulled down and built the first Cambusnethan House. Sir John left the estate to his daughter who had married Lockhart of Castlehill.
In the early 19th century Cambusnethan House burned down, and the Sinclair-Lockharts commissioned James Gillespie Graham to build anew. The second, splendidly gothic, Cambusnethan House is also known as Cambusnethan Priory and was the family home into the 20th c. It eventually came into use as a hotel. This venture folded in 1984, since when the house has decayed and fallen victim to vandals. It is now on the buildings at risk register.
Other names; Baird’s Tower, Kawslethead.