Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Bonnington

Bonnington, an estate, with a mansion and a famous waterfall, in the SW of Lanark parish, Lanarkshire. The estate belonged to the Baillies of Lamington, heirs of Sir William Wallace; passed by marriage to the Carmichaels (c. 1590), to Robert Dundas of Arniston (e. 1757), and to Admiral Sir John Lockhart-Ross (1721-90); and now belongs to Sir Charles W. F. A. Ross, Bart., of Balnagowan, Ross-shire, who owns in Lanarkshire1421 acres, valued at £1511 per annum. The mansion on it stands near the Clyde, within ¼ mile of Corra Linn; superseded an old mansion of the Baillies; was built by Sir John L. Ross, after designs by Gillespie Graham; and contains a portrait of Sir William Wallace, a rude old chair called Wallace's, and a small ancient cup, girt with a silver hoop, and known as 'Wallace's quaigh,'-all brought, long years ago, from Lamington Castle. The grounds around the mansion are naturally beautiful, and highly improved by art; they are open to tourists, and include the path leading to the fall. This, Bonnington Linn, is the uppermost of the three famous falls of the Clyde; occurs about a mile above the mansion, and 2¾ miles S of Lanark; is a sheer leap of the whole river over a precipice of 30 feet; and has a projecting break in the middle of the breadth, which splits the descending mass of waters, and gives a twofold power to their scenic effect. The fall becomes an abyss, the abyss a river-torrent; and the river-torrent careers for about ½ mile along a dark wild chasm, with mural faces 70 to 100 feet high. The scenery is most imposing and picturesque; and, in its most striking part, is well beheld from a light iron bridge bestriding the river near the fall. See pp. 33-39 of Dorothy Wordsworth's Tour in Scotland (ed. by Princ. Shairp, 1874).


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "an estate, with a mansion and a famous waterfall"   (ADL Feature Type: "land parcels")
Administrative units: Lanark ScoP       Lanarkshire ScoCnty

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