During the medieval period, Drumpellier was the farming grange of the Monks of Newbattle Abbey, which gives rise to the name of Monklands, the historical name for the surrounding area. The Drumpellier estate was purchased in 1735 by the tobacco merchant Andrew Buchanan (1690–1759). He was responsible for building the oldest part of Drumpellier House in 1736 and it was extended in the 1740s and 1750s. Additions were made to it in 1840 and 1850.
Andrew Buchanan was a Tobacco Merchant who became Lord Provost of Glasgow in 1740. The son of a wealthy maltman, Buchanan took advantage of the Treaty of Union which gave Scotland access to the English Colonies and amassed a fortune through ownership of tobacco estates in Virginia. He also acquired a considerable portfolio of property in Glasgow. He purchased the Drumpellier Estate in 1739 and built Drumpellier House as his home two years later.
Though no supporter of their cause, he led a group of prominent citizens who met Prince Charles Edward Stewart (1720–88), and was able to considerably reduce the amount of money demanded by the Jacobites not to raze the city.
He was buried in the old Ramshorn kirkyard. In 1777, the family business failed when their tobacco estates were lost following the American Revolution. Buchanan Street in Glasgow is named after his nephew, another Andrew Buchanan.