Another great interesting video Ed. I saw you the other week when I was doing my Royal Mail Parcels, but you shot past me before I had the chance to say Hello 😒😒
Great video, i miss this kind of landscape sometimes . I now live in Thailand and try to discover the old culture here, which is also very interesting . I wish you all the best from over here Greetings from Baltex Peter from Bangkok⛩
I think much history has been lost some of it purposely to the mists of time I would love to see the hill fort as it originally was I bet a few storys of old could be told that looked an absolutely fabulous 👣 walk 🚶just perfect for that time of year too the mist and wind in the background makes this just a perfect video🎥 cheers Ed...
That is a brilliant walk Ed, I do it often with my wife and kids one of the buildings at south castle walls was untill recently still standing. The upper half of it was knocked down and filled in what was remaining of the walls , probably as a measure of safety as I imagine the structure wasn't very stable anymore due to it's terrible condition, I did manage to get some photos on a previous visit a few years back though
A bit muddy on the day, but a great walk indeed. I have since wondered if my shot of the North Castlewalls animal stalls were animal stalls or areas for the storage of various things. I'm full of doubts. Any farmers out there?
Yes what glorious weather for walk. The light certainly brought out a pin-sharp clarity to your filming. Great combination of stunning scenery and history. Thanks.
Great video. Not too far from me (Renfrew). I did some walking in this area during lockdown. You have just reminded me about it and will definitely re-visit it again soon. I wasn’t familiar with the history of the fort. Thanks Ed.
Great video Eddy. Hillforts have always fascinated me. We had one up the back of the farm we used to have. I would go up there a lot and wonder what it looked like all those centuries ago. 👍
Thanks Robert. Combining a walk in the great outdoors with some history is always a good thing. I'm already looking with interest at another hill-fort.
Great stuff, just for info, apparently the lochan is called Walls Loch, no surprise. The 'castle' in Castlewalls, probably refers to the fort itself. This is simply because it was thought to be a defendable place and the use of the descriptor castle, was not well defined in earlier eras.
That pilot had no consideration, interrupting you mid-speech like that. 🙂 There are so many areas like this all across Scotland where next to no real research has been done. Even many Roman forts have not received the level of investigation they deserve. Going back further to the Iron and Bronze age much of what we know as fact is hypothesis and probability. I think Historic Environment Scotland does a fantastic job, but with limited finances and resources. It would be great to have more answers though. As always, great video.
Hello Ed. Over the years I have collected several studies and papers on Walls Hill and these were kept in a small village history archive which I've maintained ( with permission ) in Lochwinnoch Library. Unfortunately some of these papers are now "missing" but I do still have the booklet on the 1956 excavation of the site by Frank Newall which was sponsored by Paisley Museum. Frank was a teacher in our village school during the late 50's and 60's but he was also a noted archaeologist whose primary work was on sites within Renfrewshire. I would be happy for you to have sight of the booklet and one other on sites also identified by Frank. How do I get these to you if it would be of interest to you.
Hi Adrian. That's interesting. Good that at least some of these things survive. No need to send or let me see the booklet as I can see it online at the following address: rlhf.info/files/RLHF-Prehistoric-Renfrewshire-web.pdf All the best.
Hi Ed. It is a different document. The one you mention is a "tribute" by Derek Alexander to Frank and his work. But no problem. Enjoy all your future walks and I'll keep an eye out for the videos.
Adrian, it's just a thought. I don't know whether you have original documents relating to Frank Newall, but I'm wondering if rather than Lochwinnoch Library they could be offered to the National Library of Scotland for safekeeping. Copies could be retained at Lochwinnoch for general viewing. Just a thought. Take care.
I have deposited many items from/about Lochwinnoch with the NRS ( recently the Deacon Court minutes from 1873-1948 of the now closed West United Free Church ) but for some reason had never thought of anything I have of Frank Newall's work. So many thanks for the prompt, Ed. I'll speak with contacts at the NRS and put a package of papers together if they agree. I know that even for quite small items they are very tight on storage space. The paper relevant to Walls Hill is Frank's report on the excavation printed by the Paisley Museum in 1957/8. Best Regards, Adrian
The small stretch of water adjacent to the Fort is marked on old OS maps (Circa. 1900) as Walls Loch. My father, who was a Johnstone man, and others of his age group, knew this loch as the Wars Loch. I presume this was started by someone who misheard the original name and it was passed on to others.
You must cover at least twice the distance having to walk back for the camera, it’s what you see that matters so when moving keep the camera looking forward.
Ah'm big Gnawa Murni , high heijin o the Umni gonni tribe fae Feegie Park in Paisley . Guid vid son . Ran aw the hills n' dales aw oer Renfrewshire trainin' for the marathon , ran a different place every Sunday . Na sa braw when it's dreich .
Ed, I really enjoy your videos and I'm a subscriber to your channel. According to the Vanduara of Ptolemy's map and page 18 of Stuarts Caledonia Romana, the location of a Fort being in Oakshaw Paisley and thar particular Praetorium being the Capital or strategic heart of Vanduara cannot seemingly be disputed according to scholars. So whilst a Fort or vantage point may have existed where you are in the video, there is more evidence to suggest it was in the heart of Paisley.
Hi Gary. Many thanks for that. You're right. I do nevertheless think that there is so much guesswork and uncertainty surrounding that period that it's nigh impossible to know for sure. Certainly a few online sources at least put forward the suggestion that Walls Hill may not only have been a main centre or 'town', but potentially the location of the Damnonii 'capital'. It's a spot that definitely merits a major archaeological dig.
@@EdExploresScotlandI think the point you made at the end of the video regarding the sheer size and scale of Walls Hill making it very likely to have been the heart or Capital is a strong one and it has certainly got me intrigued.
Sometimes in life there are disappointments, like when pies are not possible. I'm currently thinking about expanding the occasional cooking theme and taking a stove up some hills where I shall bake a pie from scratch. I'm just not sure where the scratches grow.
Of course, there were a couple of Roman forts to the north west of Paisley in Renfrewshire. One at Barochan Hill near Houston which is reckoned to have been abandoned in favour of a new one to the west of Bishopton with a better view of the Clyde estuary and western end of the Antonine Wall at Bowling. Some Agricola era pottery was discovered at the first fort and if the other one is connected with the Antonine Wall system across the Clyde this would suggest a fair bit of Roman military activity in Renfrewshire for about 90 years or so which may have contributed to Walls Hill Fort being abandoned? There's also the outline of of a Roman signal fortlet overlooking Greenock.
Many thanks. The River Clyde must have been a huge barrier to the Roman operation/invasion. Did the Romans sail up the Clyde? Did the Romans bring war elephants on boats to Dumbarton? So many questions.
We can only guess but given their engineering expertise, I don't think it was. The fleet is likely to have supported Agricola's land invasion in 80 AD. Phase one of Agricola's invasion sent a fleet to sail round the Scottish coast, phase two advanced to, and pacified the area up to, the Clyde-Forth line and three, beyond that up the east coast (loads of forts up there. e.g., Braco). I think I read somewhere that the Emperor Claudius brought elephants over to overawe British chieftains but there was no mention of them being used in Britain on campaign. @@EdExploresScotland
@@EdExploresScotland The Clyde was passable across a ford/causeway that crossed near the current Langdyke. There are a few clues in that area that may be road sections. The road would have gone to Whitemoss Fort (Bishopton) then through to Lurg Moor and beyond to Outerwards.
I used to live in the Derbyshire Peak District where are msany such "Iron Age hill forts" non have been truly excavated, just labelled. In the peaks is interesting to note that they were built upon "rocks" that to me slways looked man made cut blocks, some now tumbled, the grit stone also man made in extreme distant past, pre history. When we look at gritstone,coukd well be a geopolymer of sorts . Everytine I look st these sncient rocks, I see tge remsins of immense structures. I reckon the peoples of the Iron Age used these sncient ruins to build upon. The section that fascinates you, outside the hill fort walls, could well hsve brlonged to s far more sncient structure, Britsin us fulll if them snd many towns snd cities built over them. There us a hidden history that many are now uncovering away from the mainstream archeology
Now, it the phone company would quite harassing people to use their phones and use the time & dime to LiDAR the old hill forts, we might actually know something. Very interesting!
Carman hill fort is another possible capital of the Damnonii. There may not have been much of a Roman presence in Renfrewshire. The Romans may have preferred the Clyde as their Western flank in the Lowlands.
Standing up to the Romans in a hill fort…..no chance at all The reason the scots north of the wall avoided the Romans was that they had very few large settlements - which would have attracted the Romans like flies to s..t
