Between 1822 and 1828 the north front of Hamilton Palace was massively enlarged and enhanced by Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) working in collaboration with the distinguished Glasgow architect, David Hamilton (1768-1843), whose design represented an interpretation of the 1819 drawings of the Neapolitan architect Francesco Saponieri. The old north front was replaced by a monumental edifice 80.5m long, the façade of which was centred upon a colossal portico of hexastyle (that is, of six column) form and Corinthian Order.

Begun in about 1684 by the 3rd Duke and Duchess of Hamilton and carried through after the duke's death in 1694 by Duchess Anne (1632-1716) alone, Hamilton Palace underwent a major rebuilding programme in the late 17th century. Dubbed by the family as 'The Great Design', these works led to the creation of a U-plan mansion, with a deep but open south-facing courtyard which, with the exception of the south quarter (which was demolished), followed the outline of the existing late 16th-century enclosed quadrangle. James Smith (c.1645-1731), since 1683 Surveyor or Overseer of the Royal Works in Scotland, was the architect whom the duke and duchess commissioned to design and supervise the building of the mansion from 1693 onwards.

The enlargement of the north front of Hamilton Palace between 1822 and 1828 at the instigation of the 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) was accompanied by a building programme which resulted in the enhancement of the associated service buildings in a style and on a scale which echoed the formal grandeur of the main block. In a series of nine surviving drawings ascribable to about 1825, David Hamilton (1768-1843) produced a set of designs for the stable court and kitchen offices which broadly correspond to the ranges as built.

Begun in about 1684 by the 3rd Duke and Duchess of Hamilton and carried through after the duke's death in 1694 by Duchess Anne (1632-1716) alone, Hamilton Palace underwent a major rebuilding programme in the late 17th century. Dubbed by the family as 'The Great Design', these works led to the creation of a U-plan mansion, with a deep but open south-facing courtyard which, with the exception of the south quarter, followed the outline of the existing late 16th-century enclosed quadrangle. Under the direction of the architect James Smith (c.1645-1731), the south quarter was removed entirely, the east and west quarters were rebuilt as courtyard wings, while the north wing was refaced and remodelled internally, its principal external feature being the entrance portico.

Of the late 17th-century interiors which survived the programme of enlargement and enhancement carried out by Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) and the architect, David Hamilton (1768-1843), few escaped embellishment. The long picture gallery, which had taken up the entire first floor of the main or north block of the late 17th-century palace, remained a major feature of the 10th Duke's monumental edifice, overlooking the south court but now masked on its window-less north side by the massive 1820s additions. Inside, the 35.7m-long and 6.7m-wide gallery received not only some of the 10th Duke's own prize treasures, including a canopied throne, but also two replacement chimneypieces. The deeply coffered (sunk-panelled) ceiling and panelling were also heavily refurbished to the extent that this room in effect became yet another monument to his intervention.

One of the main purposes of the enlargement and enhancement of the palace between 1822 and 1828 by Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) and the architect, David Hamilton (1768-1843) was the creation of a suite of interiors that would form an appropriately grand setting for the duke's growing collection of art treasures. Inside, the scale and tone of the new additions on the north front were set by the grand entrance hall at first-floor level, an impressive 16.5m-square and 12.8m-high space whose dimensions exactly matched the proportions of the portico outside.

The grandest of the interiors in the late 17th-century 'Great Design' consisted of a suite of crimson-upholstered state rooms on the first floor of the west wing and the adjacent Long Gallery in the north block. Nothing in the palace escaped the embellishing hand of Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) but in this area his interventions involved a 'thorough repair' of the oak panelling and the creation of new trompe l'oeil (that is, painted with the false effect of relief or perspective) ceilings by David Ramsay Hay. To the end, therefore, something of the character and tone of the interiors created in the time of Duchess Anne (1632-1716) managed to shine through.

The enlargement and enhancement of the palace between 1822 and 1828 by Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) and the architect, David Hamilton (1768-1843) led to the creation or refurbishment of the interiors on a grand scale, and of the late 17th-century rooms or features which survived this massive programme few escaped embellishment or re-modelling to some degree. Originally set within the north-west turret, the location of the old great stair did not fit in with the scheme of 1820s and was re-located to a newly created stairwell in the outer west wing between the two service courts. This view shows the oak-balustraded scale-and-platt (flight and landing) staircase created by the master carver, William Morgan for William, 3rd Duke (1634-94) and Anne, Duchess of Hamilton (1632-1716). Each of the ten rails which make up the stair is from a single piece of wood, and the ten panels are intricately carved with flowing foliaceous ornament, variously containing human figures, animals and the intertwined monogram, W and A, for William and Anne, surmounted by ducal coronet (bottom left). The newly created stairwell has marbled walls and on the main floors (not shown in this image) classical statuary set in niches.

At the death of Duchess Anne in 1716 and even by the 1730s, some of the interiors of the late 17th-century 'Great Design' are known to have still remained unfinished. It is likely that these were within the east wing which was the last part to be erected and which was clearly the focus of attention of the architect William Adam (1689-1748) and his stuccoist, Thomas Clayton, when they came to be engaged by the 5th and 6th Dukes of Hamilton (1703-43, 1724-58).

The interiors of the east wing, which was the last part of the late 17th-century 'Great Design' to be erected, probably still remained unfinished in the 1730s. By at least the early 1740s, however, they had become the focus of attention of the architect William Adam (1689-1748) and his stuccoist, Thomas Clayton, then engaged by the 5th and 6th Dukes of Hamilton (1703-43, 1724-58) on a major building programme at the ducal hunting lodge of Châtelherault.

The ancient woodlands around the Avon Water were one of the great assets of the royal hunting estate of Cadzow, which came into the possession of the progenitors of the Hamilton family in the early 14th century. In the later Middle Ages an enclosed game reserve was formed across an angle of the west bank of the river, and in the first half of the 16th century this well-wooded area provided the setting for the relatively short-lived 'Castle in the Wood of Hamilton', now known as Cadzow Castle. Hunting remained a major feature of the forest but by the 1730s when the elegant hunting lodge of Châtelherault was built on the opposite (eastern) bank of the river, foxes were tending to replace deer as the main prey of the hounds and mounted hunters, the deer tending merely to become 'graceful appendages to the landscape'.

Named after the French dukedom bestowed in 1549 upon James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran and Lord Governor of Scotland (d.1575), Châtelherault is one of the largest and most elegant hunting lodges in Britain. Built between 1731 and 1743 by the 5th Duke of Hamilton (1703-43) to the designs of the celebrated architect, William Adam (1689-1748), Châtelherault occupies an elevated site in the High Parks, forming an eye-catching termination to the vista along the great south avenue from the palace, about 2.5km away. The main north front of Châtelherault, which is almost 90m in overall length and is wrought in orange-red sandstone, consists of two pairs of three-storeyed pavilions linked by a long screen-wall with deeply scalloped parapets, and is backed by courtyards and gardens, clearly visible in this aerial view. The ducal apartments were contained in the western (right) group of pavilions, behind which there is a restored parterre (ornamental garden) and surrounding terrace. Behind the servants' quarters and stables in the eastern pavilions is a kennel yard (now roofed over), and the flanking terrace has an earthwork 'mount' or viewing platform.

Situated high above the west bank of the River Avon about 1km south of Hamilton, Barncluith, from the Old Scots, 'Baron's Cleugh' (ravine), comprises a picturesque group of domestic buildings dating from the 16th and 17th centuries surrounded by some four hectares of landscaped gardens. Stretches of terraced or 'hanging' gardens ranged across the steep riverside slopes have their origins in work undertaken by John Hamilton (d.1708) of Barncluith, 2nd Lord Belhaven, who was influenced by the publication of John Reid's The Scots Gardn'r in 1683 and by landscape designs at neighbouring Hamilton Palace. By the 19th century Barncluith had become justly famous as an archetypal old Scots garden, 'one of the sights of Clydesdale' on the itinerary of every important visitor to western Scotland.

Established by the Bent Colliery Company on the east bank of the River Clyde at Bothwellhaugh in 1884, Hamilton Palace Colliery was operational until 1959. At its peak in 1948 it had a workforce of 605 employees and annually produced 137,500 tons of rich coal for house, gas and manufacturing use from two main shafts, each 291m deep. This colliery stood about 2km north of Hamilton Palace but the underground workings associated with its twin mine-shafts extended mainly in its direction, underneath Hamilton Low Parks. They were instrumental in creating structural instability and subsidence in the area, ultimately contributing to the demolition of Hamilton Palace in the 1920s.

Originally erected in 1696 as the residence of David Crawford, Secretary to Duchess Anne (1632-1716) this handsome and substantial house was sited near the foot of the 'Hietoun' close to the precincts of Hamilton Palace. It was built to the designs of the architect, James Smith (c.1645-1731) who was then working for the duchess on 'The Great Design' for the palace.

Promoted to collegiate status by the 1st Lord Hamilton in 1451 with provision for up to about nine prebendaries (college priests or canons supported by stipends from lands and rents), the medieval parish church of Hamilton was evidently a fully developed cruciform structure comprising a relatively lengthy nave and chancel on each side of a central tower. Standing uncomfortably close to the east quarter of Hamilton Palace, it continued in use after the Reformation in 1560 as the local parish church and burial-ground.

Designed in 1842 for the 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) by the distinguished Edinburgh architect William Burn (1789-1870), what was known as the Duke's Riding School was built to replace the stables court within the Hamilton Palace complex. Becoming the museum of the Cameronian (Scottish Rifles) Regiment in 1983, it now forms part of a redesigned and enlarged Hamilton Museum.

In line with his grandiose enlargement of Hamilton Palace, Alexander, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852), entertained various schemes to redesign or replace his family burial vault which stood close to the east quarter of the palace in the aisle of the old and dilapidated collegiate church. Between 1838 and 1841 these schemes involved David Hamilton (1768-1843), the architect with whom the duke had collaborated on the enlargement of the palace, and, in 1846, Henry Edmund Goodridge of Bath, designer of Beckford's Tower at Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire for the duke's father-in-law, William Beckford. Both architects produced designs for a chapel and mausoleum on the medieval church site, close to the east flank of the palace. Neither came to anything and in the end, in 1848, the commission eventually fell to the distinguished Edinburgh architect, David Bryce (1803-76), and in relation to a fresh site north of the palace.

Situated in the Low Parks in the fertile valley of the River Clyde, Hamilton Palace stood at the centre of an extensive garden which, as its main axis, had a great north-south tree-lined avenue over 5km in overall length. This designed landscape may have originated in the late 17th century but was first drawn up in 1708 by Alexander Edward (1651-1708). The layout was later developed, most notably by William Adam (1689-1748), who introduced Châtelherault hunting lodge into the south avenue in the High Parks where it commanded a broad vista northwards across the Low Parks.