Hamilton Mausoleum

Another outing, this time to Hamilton for a guided tour of the Hamilton Mausoleum, followed by a nice bit of lunch.

The mausoleum was commissioned by Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, the 10th Duke of Hamilton, who wanted a landmark monument for himself and his family to be in interred after death. Construction began in 1842 with the assistance of architect David Bryce and was completed by 1858.

Hamilton himself never saw it finished as he died in 1852 and even today, there's no-one interred in it as the building suffered subsidence from local coal mining and flooding from the River Clyde in 1921, which also led to the demolition of nearby Hamilton Palace, forcing all of the bodies to be moved to nearby Bent Cemetery.

A photo of a group of men, standing outside an old building.

Some of the lads, standing in front of the three entrances to the mausoleum

It's still an impressive structure - a Roman-style domed structure of panelled masonry costing around £33,000 at the time (that's over £5 million these days), it's 36.5m high (120') and complete with marble floors, massive bronze doors, three massive archway entrances, and two huge lion sculptures guarding the front entrance, one awake and one asleep to ensure one is always watching.

The massive bronze doors (now displayed inside), sculpted by Sir James Steele, and cast by James Milne, were modelled on Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" at the Baptistery of Florence in Italy and depict scenes from the Old Testament.

There's also a 200 metre-long underground tunnel to allow smoke from the underfloor heating system to escape without detracting from the building's appearance. 

A photo of a group of men standing inside a mausoleum crypt.

The Crypt

A photo looking up into the cupola of the mausoleum.

The Chapel Cupola

A photo of a group of me standing in the central room under the cupola.

The Chapel

The mausoleum is also known for once holding the world record for the longest echo sustained in any manmade structure in the world. Sounds inside can reverberate for 15 seconds around the mausoleum. In 2014 that record was broken at the Inchindown oil storage tanks in Invergordon.

Another curiosity of the interior architecture are the “Whispering Wa’s”, much like the Whispering Gallery in St.Paul's Cathedral, where the remarkable acoustics can project sound around the sides. Two people can stand at either end of one of the curved interior walls, facing away from each other into the niche of the wall, and hold a whispered conversation.

A photo of the plinth that Alexander Hamilton's sarcophagus sat on.

This is where Alexander Hamilton's sarcophagus was displayed

As for Alexander Hamilton, there's not a lot to recommend him - an Englishman born into wealth and aristocracy and educated at Harrow and Oxford, he was widely regarded as a fop and a dandy. There are also possible connections with slavery as his wife inherited an immense fortune based on Jamaican sugar estates.

If you fancy a visit to the Hamilton Mausoleum, then you'll find all the information you need on their web site:

…and you'll find a fair bit of background information and history about it here: