Hillhouse was one of 67 electoral wards of South Lanarkshire Council. Originally created in 1974, the ward was initially within Hamilton District Council before the local government reforms in the 1990s. The ward elected one councillor using the first-past-the-post voting electoral system.

The ward was a Labour stronghold as the party successfully won the seat at eight of the 10 elections and held the seat for 23 years consecutively after gaining it from the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 1980.

In 2007, the ward was abolished and replaced by the multi-member Hamilton West and Earnock ward as council elections moved to a proportional voting system – the single transferable vote – following the implementation of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004.

The Hillhouse ward was created in 1974 by the Formation Electoral Arrangements from an area in the west of the former Hamilton Burgh. The ward centered around the Hillhouse area in Hamilton.^[1] The was expanded slightly following the Initial Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements in 1980^[2] before being reduced in size by the Second Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements in 1994 as an area in the north of the ward was transferred to the newly created Burnbank/Springwells ward.^[3] After the implementation of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, the boundaries proposed by the second review became the Formation Electoral Arrangements for the newly created South Lanarkshire Council – an amalgamation of Clydesdale District Council, East Kilbride District Council and Hamilton District Council as well as part of the City of Glasgow District Council. In 1998, the Third Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements saw the ward's eastern boundary amended to run along Hillhouse Road and the southern boundary amended to take in streets around the south of Townhill Road.^[4] In 2007, the ward was abolished as the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 saw proportional representation and new multi-member wards introduced. The area covered by the Hillhouse ward was placed into the new Hamilton West and Earnock ward.^[5]