ANYONE driving into Glasgow on the M74 from the south can see, on the horizon, the “Dogg Kennell” of Chatelherault, all that remains of Hamilton Palace, demolished in 1927. From the 1720s, the Dukes of Hamilton built Chatelherault as their hunting lodge and, at one time, it housed what became the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Foxhounds. Now run by South Lanarkshire District Council, curator Mike Taylor, formerly a farmer in the Borders and on Coll, spent an hour showing me around.
In 1723, 14 couple were established having been bought from the king’s huntsman, Will Owen, for £73 (about £10,000 today).
“In the summer, the hounds were taken to Bo’ness for the sea air,” says Mike Taylor.
In 1733, however, the then huntsman, David Dewar, was bitten and died of rabies.…