Wilsontown Inn
Date 14 March 1991
Event ID 895256
Category Management
Type Site Management
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/895256
2 storey 3 bay house in coursed rubble with plain skews and surrounds to its openings. The pitched roof is in slate, whilst a detached row of roofless outbuildings stands to the left.
Used at various times as a store, shop and a public house, with the remains of two ranges of outhouses to either side, forming a courtyard. These buildings are all depicted on an 1826 map of the Wilsontown Estate, and all three are still roofed on the 2nd edition of the OS 25-inch map. This site has been identified as Wilsontown Store, which was built in 1808, Forrest's 1816 map of Lanarkshire, however, identifies it as an inn, and it is shown as a public house on the 1959 edition of the OS 1:2500 map. (RCAHMS)
Wilsontown was the second coke-fired ironworks in Scotland, and the first ironworks in Lanarkshire. Started by three brothers, Robert, John and William Wilson, the business later passed into the hands of William Dixon, who managed the works until it closed in 1842, the area then being coal mined until 1955 when the site was acquired for forestry use. At one point the village was populated by 2000 people. (Forestry Commission Scotland)
