The walk begins at the bascule bridge at Ferrydyke (a short walk from the hearest
railway station at Bowling and accessed via Bowling harbour and the towpath along the Forth & Clyde Canal). We begin our Roman walk near the ruin of the old bridgekeeper's cottage,crossing the bascule bridge there, which takes us to the north side of the canal onto
Portpatrick Road (SV). On our right as we cross the bridge is the site of the old Ferrydyke Wharf or
Donald's Quay. The bascule bridge leads us into the area of Old Kilpatrick previously occupied by the first (but if we're being accurate, more correctly, the last) fort on the Antonine Wall. It is "first" with us today merely because we are starting our walk at the western end of the wall, whose construction was begun on the eastern edge of the country, around the Firth of Forth.
During the Roman period, the reach of the Roman fort at Old Kilpatrick was all the way down to the River Clyde which was, then, a shallow, crossable river at this location. The fort was set a little back from the shore and, when the Forth & Clyde canal was being constructed, the remains of a Roman Bath House were found around the area of the Bascule Bridge.
Turn left on Portpatrick Road and retrace your steps along the north side of the canal, heading for the aptly named Roman Crescent and when you reach a curve in the road, turn right into the Crescent and head uphill (in the mid-19th century, this was known as Chapel Hill) until you are a 1/4 of a mile or so from the canal. You then turn into Dumbarton Road and head east. On your left you will see a school (Gavinburn Primary School) and hear (if not see) the traffic on Great Western Road trundling its way into Glasgow and, beyond that, Gavinburn Farm and the
Kilpatrick Braes rising into the wider landscape. These hills behind the roman encampment would surely have provided a great lookout point for the Roman legionaries garrisoned here.
To the right, you will see a cluster of industrial buildings, originally the site of the Old Kilpatrick bus depot and now housing R. B. Steel & Co. - this is the inauspicious site of the Roman Fort at Old Kilpatrick and the western end of Antonine's Wall! If not for the 19th century maps, you might never have known it was there. The first buildings (the old bus depot) appear on an OS map surveyed in 1938.
Maps of Old Kilpatrick showing Roman Site over time
An earlier late 18th century map of
Military antiquities of the Romans by William Roy (1793) provides an excellent overview of the forts and line of the wall (at that time called Grime's [or Graham's] Dyke) between Old Kilpatrick and the firth of Forth at Grange (just beyond present day Kinneil and Blackness Castle). The Roy map is especially interesting as it includes some hand-drawn sketches of various forts, including Duntocher.
Whilst there isn't much to see at
Old Kilpatrick today, the site has been completely built over ... we do have the old maps and a fabulous 3D model created by the Antonine Wall organisation (see below). Remains were found here and there are two Roman distance slabs and an altar to Jupiter located in the
Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University. Signs of a
Roman bathhouse annexed to the Old Kilpatrick fort were also reputedly found on the site of the Forth & Clyde Canal near the Ferrydyke crossing.
Moving on with our walk once again, the easiest and most sensible route to the next
Roman Fort at Duntocher is to retrace our steps and follow the canal to Lock 37 by the Erskine Bridge. In a brief diversion, you can cross the canal at Lock 37 and climb up onto the bridge to obtain great views up and down the River Clyde and out over the Kilpatrick Hills as well as an aerial view of the site of the old Roman Fort. Carrying on past Lock 37 and the Erskine Bridge, you come to
the bridge at Farm Road (SV) near Dalmuir. Turn right at the top of Farm Road, pass the church and cross into
Mountblow Road (SV) - you will see the multi-storey flats of Littleholm ahead of you. Follow the road up towards Dalmuir Golf Club and join
the path (SV) beyond the garages after the flats at Littleholm Place. Walk through the golf course on the
dedicated path (SV) heading uphill. Exit the golf course by the
concrete steps/path up to Glenhead Road (SV) and use the
flyover (SV) to cross Great Western Road. Follow the path until you come to Roman Road and keep going until you see
the church (SV) and signs for Goldenhill Park on your right.
To your left the Duntocher Burn sweeps around the edge of the park. A bridge crossing the burn is called the Roman Bridge but it was, in fact, built as late as the 18th century, and repaired during WWII following the Clydebank Blitz.
Google Maps Aerial View of Goldenhill Park
with superimposed survey diagram of Duntocher Roman Fort and Fortlet
Goldenhill Park is the site of our second Roman fort of the day: Duntocher - which is also the first of the forts on the Antonine Wall to leave visible traces as can be seen on these aerial photos in
Scotland's Canmore collection. There is also a very interesting
geophysical survey of the site available online courtesy of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
A
Roman-themed playpark was constructed within Goldenhill Park in the summer of 2019 to help raise awareness of the Roman Fort at Duntocher.
Meanwhile, a happy find of the day was a
1950s archaeological survey of Antonine's Wall by the Ordnance Survey preserved by Canmore. Fabulous maps!
