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Built as both a family chapel and final resting place for the 10th Duke of Hamilton, construction of the mausoleum commenced in 1842 and was completed, some 16 years later, in 1858. The structure rises to a height of 120 feet and cost in excess of 130 pounds.
An expert in Egyptian culture, the Duke sourced artefacts for the British Museums Egyptian collections. It is therefore, of no surprise that such a man should have chosen to be interred in the sarcophagus of an Egyptian princess, which rested on a marble plinth within the chapel of the mausoleum (now relocated).
The remains of the 10th Duke of Hamilton and his accompanying family members (who occupied the crypt below) were reinterred in 1921 when concerns were raised over the structural stability of the mausoleum. Though now structurally stable the mausoleum is recorded to have subsided by 18 feet.
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