Only Glasgow Cathedral, which sits on the other side of Castle Street, predates Provand's Lordship, the city's oldest house.
Built in 1471 by Bishop Andrew Muirhead, it was originally part of St Nicholas's Hospital, and was also an almshouse for the poor. The three-storey medieval building was home to a member of the clergy associated with the cathedral, the Lord of the Prebend of Barlanark. The title became known as Lord of Provan, and then Provand's Lordship. Provan Hall, the lord's sixteenth-century country house, can still be found in Auchinlea Park,
near Easterhouse.
Provand's Lordship
has a colourful history. Mary Queen of Scots is reputed to have spent the night there. During the nineteenth century, it was occupied by the city's hangman. Around the turn of the twentieth century, many of the surrounding buildings were being demolished and the Provand's Lordship Society was formed to try to protect the last of these.
At this time, Isaac Morton and his family lived in part of the house. They ran a sweet shop and sparkling-water business on the ground floor. The machinery they used for making sweets is now part of the museum collection. The Morton family finally gave up the premises after the First World War in 1918 and the building became a museum. Sir William Burrell, a member of the society, donated items from his celebrated collection for display in the museum. He helped to furnish the house and to decorate it as it would have been in the seventeenth century. The building was handed over to the city in 1978 and has undergone extensive restoration.
The most recent addition is the St Nicholas garden, built in 1997. It is a medical herb garden, containing medicinal plants in use in the fifteenth century, designed to reflect the original purpose of the house.
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