THE  ROMANS ?

© Baillieston Born 'n' Bred 2024

WERE THE ROMANS IN BAILLIESTON?

Before I start I want to just mention a comment that  Stewart Jackson made in his 1983 book about Baillieston “MY AIN FOLK”.

"It was common knowledge that the “Landed Gentry” revealed little, or nothing about the history of this area."

 I believe Stewarts statement to be true 100% true. However it is no mystery that they were all over Scotland.

I have gathered up the clues, Roman indicators that kept cropping up as I worked my way through  Street Names Project, patterns and links just kept emerging, I felt I could not ignore them.  I believe that Baillieston was back then and still is the most central hub location for distribution in Scotland West. Other than locations right on the coasts and Baillieston is the only place inland in Scotland that you can reach from the coast without going over a hill or steep rise as the height is only between 200 ft to 220 feet. I believe Baillieston was one one of the storage and distribution sites for the Antonine Wall, just far enough back from it to not be subject to raids by the native Scottish Tribes who had actually put their territorial disputes to the side and merged to fight the Romans and were collectively called the Caledonians by the Romans.

 I decided to continue pursuing  these Roman indicators and pull all the information together to see if it could somehow fit all together.

• Wotherspoon & Leitch in their book The Rise of a Community (1950) mention a horse harness found in the Camp Road area but nothing else. 

• Stuart Jackson  in his book about Baillieston, My Ain Folk (1981),  mentions an "Incampment"  approximately where Quinton Gardens is His  remark below* was squarely aimed at the double barrelled at  Scott-Maxwell,  Nelson-Scott, Scott-Miller and the Carrick -Buchanan's who owned most of the lands of Baillieston, Stewart wrote.

*"It was common knowledge that the “Landed Gentry” revealed little, or nothing, about the history of this area."

That in itself seems like a statement of frustration carried down from those times. It is also my opinion they were they covering up information so not to impeded their developments or sale of their lands? We will never know, but why?

• History teacher, and later headmaster of Baillieston JS School Peter Boa stated categorically during a history lesson that Camp Road was and old Roman Road. Mr Boa owned property in Baillieston so he knew a lot about the village and his wife was highly active in the community within the Church, Indeed mingled with the Landed Gentry at Gala's, Fêtes and Bazaars (info of these in Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser archives)

One name that I ruled out  was a place on a 1560 map by Timothy Pont named Rumbro. The map itself bears only a slight resemblance to this area, and the map is orientated West  rather than North, but the name is relatively close to where Baillieston is. The name Rumbro appears in places in England as Rumburgh and they date back as far as 1050 and they refer to monasteries and since this area was part of the Monklands a logical conclusion is that the "bro" means Brotherhood or Burgh. I my opinion Rumbro was a old Monastery somewhere is this area.

The Romans were all over Scotland, they even sailed round it, and were here for about 130 years mostly behind the Antonine Wall, but did spend about 60 years further north, before deciding it wasn't worth the trouble.  A deciding factor may have been  what happened after the Battle of Mons Grampus that took place in the Inverurie area and the foot of the mountain Benachie . The brutal efficiency of the Roman Army in that area was  approx. 12,000 strong and in the battle they  killed 10,000 of the 30,000 of the Caledonians, only 360 Romans were killed. After the battle the Caledonians switched to guerrilla warfare which did not suit the Romans and was difficult to predict and defend against.

   If the Romans were in the Baillieston area where would they had been? Where would the road into this area have been? Over in Birkenshaw there is the known location of a main Roman Road (Watling Street) that ran parallel to OLD EDINBURGH ROAD that was know to come from the Roman Garrison of Bothwellhaugh. The understanding is that at Birkenshaw the road then went down Roundknowe Road to an old area at a junction with Hamilton Road named "The Sheddings". The belief is that Hamilton Road was another Roman Road heading West and on to Tollcross Road. However my interest was back at the top of the rise at Roundknowe and the Calderbraes golf course.

The golf course runs steeply downhill to the North Calder and the hole 4 at the bottom of the steep slope is named "The Narrows". Looking at the layout what struck me was the straight treeline, an "Avenue" of trees from the top of the rise to the bottom, but it was mainly the section from about halfway down to "The Narrows" that really interested me as it it was so typical of the way landowners tried to indicate and protect these old Roman Road by planting either Beech and/or Broad leaf Lime trees on either side of the road , it is a typical old Roman Road indicator. I went into the middle of the Avenue of trees and noticed right away the the ground it the centre was slightly higher than the ground either side of the tree lines, a common feature of old Roman roads for drainage.

Walking down this Avenue, as I approached the bottom I could hear, then see the North Calder through the trees. I saw the very narrow section of the North Calder, it was so shallow with a flat red sandstone bed I could have walked across if I had been wearing water proof boots, mind you it was icy that day and icicles were visible as the river dipped just down from the narrows. The tree line actually continued on the opposite bank which also intrigued me. 

On the North bank on the North Calder I followed the line which took us into the grounds of where the rear of Calderbank House was and the trees ended.

Google maps changed everything when it was released in the UK as it let me see the bigger picture from above. I had known for some time that Beech Trees were believed to have introduced into Britain by the Romans, which although not strictly true, however historically it was believed they did. The Beech tree was revered by ancient Romans, because it was sacred to Diana, goddess of the moon, birth, woodland and wild animals, and just about all of the tree lines/avenue I had walked were Beech and Broad Leafed Lime:

The Maxwell Estates south and east sides were lined with Beech trees with a Beech Avenue running to the high point at Huntingtower, and another Beech Avenue running parallel to the main avenue on the west. Broad Leaf Lime trees were also used for both Avenues. I will cover the use of Lime trees later. But Beech trees were the most common in the Avenues.

• Beech Avenue in Garrowhill from Glasgow Road to the entrance to Garrowhill Park and Garrowhill House, Dower House for the Widow of Major James Maxwell.

Note: Prior to the Maxwell's building Garrowhill House this Avenue was named "Beech Grove". A Grove is a group, or cluster of trees and the Maxwell's must have decided to plant more beech trees to make it the avenue up the Garrowhill House,. The change from Grove to Avenue change was done by John Maxwell their only son who inherited the estate. The mystery for me was what my aunt Mary told me about her father telling her about the Roman Fort "Incampment" surrounded by trees approximately where Quinton Gardens is which is only 80 yards east of the avenue. It is only speculation of course but was the term Grove a Roman marker by Major James Maxwell?.

Beech trees were planted at:

• Garrowhill Park was completely encompassed.

• The entire south border of Garrowhill on Glasgow Road

• The southern border of Baillieston House estate.

• The Avenue to Mount Vernon House

• The Avenue into Rhindsdale House

• The Daldowie Estate had many Beech Avenues that even I can remember from 72 to 84 when I lived in Broomhouse. The road into the Crematorium was a Beech Avenue.

• The line of trees from the location of the known old Roman Road at Birkenshaw down the North Calder is Beech trees.

What was the logic of the Lairds such as the Maxwell's when they planted all these trees around 250 years ago? 

James I of England VI of Scotland when he returned to his native land was shocked at the level of deforestation due to Henry VIII felling of mainly oak trees to build the English navy, it took as many as 6,000 Oak trees to make a galleon, whole forests were gone. King James met his Lords, Land Commissioners and Scottish Lairds to make an agreement named "The Policies" to replant trees in England and Scotland had more or less deforested by Henry VIII to build the English Navy? Even to this day trees in the areas that were covered under "The Policies" are still protected and can only be removed as a percentage of a development or if they become a danger. 

THE HISTORICAL ROMAN ROUTES THROUGH SCOTLAND AND THE STRIKING SIMILARITY  WITH THE STREET NAMES IN THE HUNTINGTOWER ESTATE.

The common link I discovered in the street names of the Huntingtower Estate (originally called The Broom Estate) was that it related to castles were Mary Queen of Scots had stayed during her exile. However, there is another link and it is only evident when two maps are compared, and these are below.

I thought this was quite striking when I saw this, why would these street names show the movement of the Roman General Agricola (this is where the term Agriculture came from) through Scotland. I was in Baillieston House in 1960 and was in the library, it was full of books and drawings, and although JM Scott-Maxwell died in 1951 the library was like a time capsule frozen in time and at that time and his children only visited the house occasionally and at weekends. during the week the estate was looked after by a house keeper and groundsman.

My maternal Gran originally from Elgin  was a servant in Baillieston house from around 1912  to 1922. She ended up down in Baillieston as a servant swap arranged by Scott-Maxwell as he like the manner of the highland servants and though the servants he had could learn from her. Scott-Maxwell used to go up to Urquhart Castle and fish on the River Spey, so he knew quite a bit about that area, and it is when I moved up to Oldmeldrum which is a part of Inverurie in 2005 and saw the Roman references all over the place I began to perhaps realise that if I could see all these Roman references Scott-Maxwell must have seen them up in the Elgin area too and even on his own land. 

Local knowledge is essential when it trumps the accepted historians opinion who tend to go by the book or what other historians have written, and indeed on many occasions have been proved to be wrong from recent aerial photographs (in the past say 70 years). An excellent case in point here is that historians claim the Battle of Mons Grampus between the Picts and the Romans is a "location uncertain", yet locals in Inverurie and Oldmeldrum know exactly where it was in Glen Garioch (the rough glen) which lies between Inverurie and Oldmeldrum West to East and Benachie and Barra Hill North to South. There are Roman clues all over the place in this area. Places named Gask (watch / signal tower), like Gask and Fingask there are 6 Marching camps stretching from Stonehaven to Keith two suffixed with name Dyke. 

I didn't intend this in anyway to be a Roman history lesson, it was only to highlight the names used to identify Roman sites and roads in different area of Scotland where I have lived. My suspicion is that Scott-Maxwell on his visits North discussed the Romans in Scotland with the Urquhart's of Urquhart near Elgin and perhaps gave Scott-Maxwell the idea for his street names for the Ladyhill side of his  Garrowhill Garden estate as their is an old Motte and Bailey caste in Elgin called Ladyhill, I have often thought when I seen these Motte and Bailey castles the have the shape of a female breast, in that they are a mound  with a  fortified keep on top of it. This part of the Roman Mystery is not about the Motte (Keep) and Bailey (Ditch) it is what was there before it and most Motte and Bailey Castles as they were mostly  built on the sites of old Roman Forts. That is a well recorded fact.

The 1950  photo below on the left is where the Garrowhill Ladyhill houses were built.  The below on the right is Lady Hill in Elgin  near where Scott-Maxwell frequently went up to to got shooting and fishing. 

The final part of my mystery was on what made Robert Murray realise that I might just have come on to  something. 

All Roman Fort and Camps were prefabricated and could be moved and relocated. They were pinned together with 13 inch pins called "Roman Nails" and it was the comparison between the shape of this areas overall footprint of the Baillieston House estate and the Roman Fort footprint at Castlecary near Cumbernauld that were an uncanny match . It also raises the question of whether OLD WOOD ROAD was a Roman Road too as it also links up with Caledonia Road to the south. Perhaps it shows that there was indeed a Roman Fort in Baillieston just where my aunt Mary's father told her and as the Roman moved North the move the fort to Castlecary on the Antonine Wall.

Footnote: Stuart Jackson said something is his book "My Ain Folk" that really struck a chord with me. He said:

"The Landed Gentry of Baillieston revealed very little or anything about the history of this area"

My thoughts are that perhaps the names and ground are telling us now.