Haggs Castle

The oldest secular building, not just in Pollokshields, but in Glasgow, dating from 1585. It was home to generations of the Maxwell family. After the 1680s it was used as a dower house, for the ladies of the family but in the mid 18th century the family moved to Pollok House. The castle was abandoned. By the 1840s it was in ruins and the ground floor was in use as the smithy for the local colliery. By 1860 it was restored in a Victorian Baronial style and became the house and offices for the Estate Factor. In 1899 a drawing room, billiard room and new circular staircase were added. It was requisitioned by the army in 1943 and in the late 1940s the Maxwell Trustees converted it into flats. In 1972 it was bought by Glasgow Corporation, substantially reconditioned and used as a children's museum until 1997 when it was sold to become once again a private residence.
Its links with the Maxwell family make it a prominent feature of the history of the whole of the south side of Glasgow; its Victorian and Baronial architecture complements the Adam tradition in nearby Pollok House, Glasgow's major surviving piece of 18th century domestic architecture, and that of Barry Geeson and John Neuman in the Burrell Museum, also in the Pollok Estate.