Pollok House is the ancestral home of the Maxwell family, located in Pollok Country Park, Glasgow, Scotland.

The house - built in 1752 and designed by William Adam - was gifted to the City of Glasgow in 1966 by Dame Anne Maxwell Macdonald, whose family had owned the estate for almost 700 years. It is now managed by the National Trust for Scotland and is open to the public.

Displayed within the Pollok House is a large, private collection of Spanish paintings, including works by El Greco, Francisco Goya and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. There are also paintings by William Blake, as well as glass, silverware, porcelain and antique furniture. The house also features servants' quarters downstairs (accessible free of charge), which include two shops and a restaurant.

The house also has an extensive garden, boasting a collection of over 1,000 species of rhododendrons.

Coordinates: 55°49′40.54″N 4°19′5.60″W / 55.8279278°N 4.318222°W / 55.8279278; -4.318222

Coordinates: 55°49′29″N 4°21′09″W / 55.8247°N 4.3524°W / 55.8247; -4.3524

Pollok (Scottish Gaelic:Pollag) is a large district on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It was built to house families from the overcrowded inner city. Housing 30,000, it was built from the 1920s to the 1950s.

The main features of the area are the nearby park, Pollok Country Park, and the adjacent Crookston Castle where Mary, Queen of Scots, was once held.

Pollok is an area south west of Glasgow, near Paisley. It is believed the name was adopted by some Breton knights in the retinue of Walter fitz Alan, Steward of Scotland to David I. Both families came via Shrewsbury, from Dol-de-Bretagne on the Brittany-Normandy border, around 1080, where Alan fitz Flaad was seneschal.

The founder of the dynasty was called Fulbert, a Norman name (in fact the same name as William the Conqueror's father in law, but not the same person). The name 'Pollock' is Celtic from Pollog, "people who live by a pool", and Robert de Steinton (Stenton in East Lothian) and his brother Peter appear to have been given land by the FitzAlan family in return for armed support, and perhaps changed their name and abode to Robert de Pollok, and Peter or Petrus de Pollok. They both have wax seals in the British Museum. Robert's shows a man on a horse with his hunting dog, and Peter's, a boar with an arrow in its left shoulder. Pollock tradition says it was granted by a king for saving his life hunting an old and wily boar that had unseated the king and was about to gore him to death. This boar has become a notable Pollock crest. These two seals are believed to be the earliest family seals (excepting kings and nobles) known in the UK as landed gentry—the Norman French "de" denotes their town of origin.

Anne Downie is a Scottish actor and writer. Born in Glasgow of Scottish/Irish parentage she presently lives in the city with her husband, John. She has a son and a daughter. She has written and performed across a wide variety of media.

Upon leaving drama college, her first professional stage role was playing opposite Andrew Keir in The Bigot. She has worked in many of the major Scottish theatres. Highlights from her career include; Six Black Candles (Royal Lyceum) - garnering the Critics Award for Best Ensemble, Tally’s Blood (Traverse), Just Frank (Traverse), Cant Pay Wont Pay (TAG), Marching On (7.84), Widows of Clyth (Dundee Rep), Judy (Perth Rep) and roles in pantomime with comedy legends Stanley Baxter and Jimmy Logan. She most recently appeared as Granny Morrison in Josie Rourke's critically acclaimed 2010/11 revival of Ena Lamont Stewart's Men Should Weep at the Royal National Theatre, London.

Television includes; Glasgow Kiss (BBC), Taggart (STV), You've Never Slept in Mine (BBC), And The Cow Jumped Over the Moon - Play for Today (BBC), High Road (STV), Parliamo Glasgow (C4), River City (BBC), Still Game (BBC), Gary Tank Commander (BBC), Feel The Force (BBC) and a comic stand-up performance on two series of Halfway to Paradise (C4).