Stonehouse is a rural village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is on Avon Water in an area of natural beauty and historical interest, near to the Clyde Valley. It is on the A71 trunk road between Edinburgh and Kilmarnock, near the towns of Hamilton, Larkhall and Strathaven. The population of Stonehouse is around 7,500. History The village's oldest structure are the ruins of St Ninian's Church, which date from the 17th century and stand in an ancient graveyard on the edge of the village. The old village centre has several rows of late 18th century and early 19th century weavers' cottages, some of which have double windows which were originally intended to maximize the amount of light coming in, for weavers working on their looms. In 1973, Stonehouse was designated to become an addition to Scotland's new towns with the purpose of strengthening the output of public sector housing available to rehouse Glasgow's people from its unfit tenements, a modern urban design to alleviate overcrowding in and around Glasgow and to generate industrial development, similar to the towns of East Kilbride, Cumbernauld and Livingston. Stonehouse was added to the responsibilities of the East Kilbride Development Corporation. Following the West Central Scotland Plan of 1974 and the inception of Strathclyde Regional Council in 1975, regional planning strategy was refocused upon regeneration within Glasgow leading to the establishment of the GEAR project in Glasgow's East End. With the encouragement of the Regional Council, the Secretary of State for Scotland, Bruce Millan, agreed that Stonehouse's development would be halted in 1976 and de-designated in 1977 after just 96 houses had been constructed. When challenged by the Scottish Office to give evidence of the claimed interest of industries in moving to Stonehouse, the Development Corporation had been unable to demonstrate any significant interest. Cot Castle Cot (Kat) Castle might better be classified as a "keep" or a "tower house," more like a fortified house than castle per se. Compared to English keeps, both Scottish and Irish keeps were generally smaller, but could provide both comfort and security, during the period of border war that marked the reign of Edward I of England and those who followed him for three centuries. During the 14th and 15th centuries, keeps or tower houses were easier for the Scots to maintain against their wealthy foe to the south. Defense of Cot Castle would have been aided by the