Newark Castle

Newark Castle - Port Glasgow

Newark Castle

We haven’t been along to see one of Historic Scotland’s buildings for a few weeks and I was rather surprised to see Newark Castle listed amongst them which I had always assumed was in Nottinghamshire. In fact there are several “Newark” castles and this one is in Port Glasgow on the banks of the Clyde.

The castle is very well preserved and has also been renovated to something like its former glory – in fact there were works going on there as we viewed it.

Newark Castle Hall

The interesting thing for me is that it was originally built by a George Maxwell in 1478 (or, at least, built for him by tradesmen unknown.) Could this be an ancient ancestor of mine? I’m not sure I’d be happy about that as one of his descendants was a Patrick Maxwell who turned the castle more into the grand mansion that we see today but who was notorious for murdering two neighbours and beating his wife who had 16 children by him (although, presumably, not all at once).

Anyway, the castle is well worth a visit as an example of Scottish Baronial style architecture if not so much for the memory of the rather unpleasant Patrick Maxwell. Mind you, I didn’t find out why it was called “Newark” but it should be remembered that it is an anagram of “wanker”.