Newark Castle

Newark Castle stands on the southern shore of the River Clyde’s estuary at Port Glasgow, Inverclyde. The firth narrows here, and shifting sandbanks once made navigation difficult for seagoing ships. For centuries the castle served as a landing place, encouraging the growth of Port Glasgow on either side. When dredging improved the Clyde’s navigability, the port became a shipbuilding centre and the castle was surrounded by yards. Ferguson Shipbuilders, the last yard on the lower Clyde, still lies close to the west of the castle. To the east, former shipyards were cleared in the 1980s and landscaped to open views of the castle and across the river from a new bypass.

The castle was built in 1478 by George Maxwell after he inherited the Barony of Finlanstone. The original structure had a tower house inside a walled enclosure with a large gatehouse. Only one corner tower of the outer wall remains today. Inside the enclosure there would have been a hall and smaller buildings such as a bakehouse and brewhouse. In the late 16th century Sir Patrick Maxwell expanded the castle into a three-storey Renaissance mansion. He added a north range with cellars, a main hall and upper chambers, and linked it to the old tower house with an east wing and to the gatehouse with a short west wing.

The mansion shows Scottish baronial features like crow-stepped gables and corbelled turrets. A stairwell projects from the north wall on corbelling to reach the upper floor. The Glasgow authorities bought 18 acres around the castle in 1668 to develop Port Glasgow’s harbour. Later owners included a ropemaker who kept wild animals in the cellars and a tenant who blocked access to stop theft of stored fruit. The castle passed into state care in 1909 and now belongs to Historic Environment Scotland. Visitors find the remaining tower, parts of the Renaissance mansion, the converted doocot and sweeping views over the Clyde.