page_title: Bonnington Pavilion
section_title: Design details of the pavilion
hierarchical_section_title: Bonnington Pavilion / Design details of the pavilion
caption_attribution_description: The natural amphitheatre below Corra linn on the Clyde at New Lanark, Scotland.
context_page_description: The Bonnington Pavilion or Hall of Mirrors, now a ruin, is situated in the grounds of the old estate of Bonnington, near New Lanark, overlooking Corra Linn falls on the River Clyde in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Alternative names are the Corra Linn Pavilion and the Falls of Clyde summerhouse. It is said to have been the first Camera obscura built in Scotland. The name comes from the Gaelic 'currach', a marshy place. A legend gives 'Cora' as a daughter of King Malcolm II, who leapt to her death here whilst trying to escape imagined danger.
context_section_description: The pavilion had 2 floors, and the bottom floor may have been used at one stage as a kitchen for the preparation of refreshments for the ladies and gentlemen who came down from Bonnington House to view the falls.
  Although a relatively large window, probably originally having shutters either side, looks onto the falls only a small hole is required for a camera obscura to function as this feature may be a later addition. The entrance door has a window set on each side, which would have prevented the projection of an image onto mirrors placed onto this 'back' wall. A window and ground floor door were present in each of the two side walls of the building; providing up to three doors altogether into the ground floor and a total of five windows, providing for exceptionally good views out of the building. The only apparently uninterrupted surface was the upper ceiling. The artist Alexander Archer sketched the pavilion from the south-west in 1837, probably including some 'artistic licence' . This sketch shows a different arrangement of the steps leading up to the door and a stone gable end, with highly ornate 'crow step' ornamentation, which would have given the building a typical arched sloping roof rather than a flat one as suggested by the remains today (2007). It may well be that the changes to the entrance steps took place when the hydroelectric power station was constructed in 1926 as the pipes carrying the water to the turbine house run very close to the pavilion entrance and they had to be moved to run parallel to the front of the building.
  The building shows signs of other alterations, such as the closing up of one of the lower ground front 'servants' entrance to the suggested kitchen area and the provision of a balustrade at the viewing window, suggesting that at a later date the method of use of the building changed. Some modern repairs have been carried out to stabilise the building as indicated by recent pointing work, new wood lintels, etc.
caption: The natural amphitheatre below Corra Linn.
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