Colzium
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Colzium House and Estate
(historically pronounced "Colly-um" but more recently "Col-zeum")
is about 500 metres to the north-east of Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The present house, dating from 1783, and extended in 1861, is shortly to undergo a major restoration programme and will be closed to the public from September 2004 for a year or two. W Mackay Lennox bought the house in 1930 and in 1937, on his retiral as Town Clerk, he presented the House and its policies to Kilsyth Burgh, in memory of his mother. The House and estate are principally used for public recreation and functions such as weddings and parties. There is also a particularly fine walled garden and a small theatre, the "clock theatre".
The estate still contains the ruins of Colzium Castle just 100M north of Colzium House at the point where the driveway turns sharp left to Tak-Ma-Doon Road. The first building here was a large "L" shaped tower house built by the Livingstons of Callendar in the mid C15th to replace the ancient motte. The Civil War Battle of Kilsyth was fought just a kilometre to the east.
A substantial hall house was added in 1575. The castle was demolished by the third Viscount of Kilsyth in 1703, just prior to his accession to the title. The family lost the estate due to their Jacobite sympathies, and it then became the property of the Edmonstone family.
There is an interesting ice house C. 1680 in the glen of the Colzium Burn which was excavated in 1977 and may still be viewed. The estate also contains one of the oldest curling ponds in Scotland. The world's first recorded curling club was founded in Kilsyth in 1716
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