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Summary

Description

Built between 1769 and 1776 by an unknown architect, Huntershill House in Bishopbriggs was the former parental home of Thomas Muir, the 18^th–century advocate and political reformer (1765–1799).

The house is two-storey with attic, five-bay, and is rectangular in plan. The front elevation has a central pedimented doorway in a rusticated stone surround. The walls are covered with grey harling with exposed chamfered in-and-out quoins. Windows are timber sash and case. There is a ridge roof with rolled skewputts, moulded stone eaves, and coped end stacks. The interior has been substantially altered (2024).

Entrance gates and gatepiers on Crowhill Road are listed separately (LB22282).

Historical background

The lands of Huntershill were formerly part of the Auchinairn estate owned by James Lyle prior to 1748. Built sometime between 1769 and 1776, Huntershill is shown on later 18^th century maps on the main road leading north from Glasgow (Taylor and Skinner 1776; Richards 1795).

In the late 18^th century, Huntershill House was the home of Thomas Muir's parents, James Muir, a hop merchant and grocer, and his wife Margaret. Thomas Muir lived at Huntershill intermittently between the ages of 17 and 27. The property was sold in 1803 following the death of Thomas Muir's father.

Huntershill was later owned by the Gallaway family. Historical maps show that during the 19^th century, it stood within a plot of garden grounds with several ancillary buildings and curving entrance drive (Ordnance Survey maps surveyed 1857 and 1896). Beyond the garden boundaries, the character of the wider landscape changed during this time period from rural to largely urban, with residential expansion taking place in the 20^th century.

In 1969, Bishopbriggs Town Council purchased the house to serve as a pavilion for the adjacent recreation ground. The conversion involved major alterations to the interior of the house and building two extensions (since demolished).

In 1975 a small museum of Thomas Muir memorabilia was opened in a room on the upper floor of the house (now housed in Bishopbriggs Library [2023])

The house was in use as an outdoor recreation centre in the late 20^th century and early 21^st century.

Statement of Special Interest

Huntershill House meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:

• As a modest late 18^th–century classical country house that retains its exterior design details
• For the partial survival of its immediate historic setting
• For the survival of buildings of this date and type which is increasingly rare
• For its recorded historical association with the nationally significant political reformer, Thomas Muir (1765–1799)

Architectural interest

Huntershill is a modest, 18^th-century country house that retains its classical proportions and design details to the exterior. While the interior has been substantially altered and few internal features survive, its surviving classical-style exterior is of special architectural interest.

The historic setting is partially legible and also contributes to the special architectural interest of the house. While the wider landscape is built up and entirely of 20^th century suburban character, the house generally retains the footprint of its immediate small garden plot as shown on 19^th century maps. Former ancillary buildings are now absent, but there remain open and wooded grounds, a boundary wall and entrance gateway (LB22282). The hilltop location means the house and boundary features have prominence in some views in the local landscape.

Historic interest

Classical-style, country houses of this stature were built in great numbers during the later 18th century as people invested new wealth in landed properties, particularly in the hinterland of growing cities like Glasgow.

While many houses of this period survive, examples that remain mostly intact are becoming less commonplace. Huntershill House has some special interest as a modest country house of the later 18^th century that partly retains its historic character and which contributes to our understanding of this period of Scottish history.

Huntershill House is also known for its historical connection with the political reformer, Thomas Muir (1765–1799).

Thomas Muir was the only child of Margaret Smith and James Muir, a hop merchant and grocer. Born in Glasgow, Muir studied divinity and then law at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. Admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1787, he built up a legal practice in Edinburgh before becoming a leading figure in the activities of Scottish political reform societies during the early 1790s. He styled himself as 'Thomas Muir of Huntershill' in his writings – a common device of the time to help identify and distinguish individuals. He also maintained an extensive library at the property (MacMillan 2005: 72).

Muir's arrest on a charge of sedition in January 1793 marked the start of a period of exile leading to his early death at the age of 33. Having missed his trial date while on bail in France, Muir was declared a fugitive of justice before his recapture and prosecution later in 1793.

Thomas Muir was sentenced to serve 14 years at the Botany Bay penal colony in Australia. After imprisonment, transportation and eventual escape back to Europe via a series of ship voyages, Muir sustained a severe injury while onboard a Spanish ship during a gun battle with the blockading British fleet off Cadiz in 1797. He died in France in 1799.

Often called the "Father of Scottish democracy", Muir is one of five men commemorated on the 1844 Political Martyrs' Monument in Calton Old Burial Ground, Edinburgh (listed category A, LB27920) and an 1837 memorial in Nunhead Cemetery, London (listed grade II, ref. 1385658). More recent commemorations include a bust by Alexander Stoddart in Bishopbriggs library (2003) a memorial gate and cairn near Huntershill House (unveiled 2003, Canmore ID 374813) and a mural in Trongate, Glasgow by Bobby McNamara (2022). In 2020 Muir was restored to the roll of advocates following archival research by Ross Macfarlane QC (Faculty of Advocates: https://www.advocates.org.uk/faculty-of-advocates/history-of-faculty/thomas-muir-of-huntershill). Thomas Muir's memory and legacy continue to be championed by the Friends of Thomas Muir (http://www.thomasmuir.co.uk/friendsofthomasmuir.html).

Thomas Muir is a person of national importance who has had a significant impact on Scotland's cultural heritage and his recorded connection with Huntershill House contributes to the special historic interest of the building. His residence at the house was intermittent during his adult life. Although he identified himself as 'Thomas Muir of Huntershill', his life, work and activities are not evidenced in any parts of the surviving historic fabric in terms of the building's design, layout, setting or internal fixtures or fittings.

Listed building record revised in 2024.

References

Bibliography

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