A Little Piece of Provence Just Behind Johnstone: On the Way to Walls Hill Fort

Just follow the sustrans path from Paisley as far as Elderslie when the path cuts onto the main road. Stay on the main road passing by the Wallace Monument and heading towards Johnstone. Just before Johnstone proper take a left into what looks like a residential area and follow the road up the hill to where you will find Johnstone Castle. From here just follow the road up the hill and there is a small section of path through Craigston Bluebell Woods which you can follow for 500m or so before cutting back onto the road at the quarry.

Approaching Elderslie on the sustrans cycle path...

Johnstone castle is now a well-tended private residence, and it is said that Frederic Chopin once visited the castle in 1848. During World War II the MOD took over the castle and a POW camp was set up in the grounds. A Polish soldier who died at the castle is buried in the nearby woods, and supposedly, on those full moonlit nights, Chopin’s preludes can be heard resounding between the castle and the woods.

The haunted bluebells woods of Craigston...


























An alley of beech trees between Hartfield and Mid-Hartfield.

For a moment I thought I was in the south of France, or Poland, anywhere but up behind Glasgow. Yet, this is the thing with cycling these backroads: the discoveries, the un-coveries, pulling the mask back on what you had presumed to be Glasgow in the first place.

Walls Hill Fort from the path at Mid Hartfield...

Perched (on a peculiar cloven stone) on the north edge of Walls Hill Fort, with expansive views north over the western half of Glasgow and beyond... (and I haven't seen any humans since Elderslie!) The peace and quiet up here is really quite something!

As for the hill fort itself, according to Susan Hothersall's wonderful book Archaeology Around Glasgow (2007):

Ptolemy's map of Scotland in the second century AD, based on the campaigns of the Roman general Agricola, shows this part of central Scotland occupied by the Damnonii tribe. It has been widely assumed that Walls Hill - perhaps because of its size - was their tribal capital.

The triangulation point atop North Castle Walls just to the west of Walls Hill Fort. This outcrop just to the west of Walls Hill was most likely part of the original hill fort.

Looking south-westish from Walls Hill Fort towards Beith and Lochwinnoch...

From Walls Hill Fort it's simple enough to get over to its adjacent promontory North Castle Walls (actually the name of the abandoned farmhouse whose remains are still here). From here, just follow the path northwards through some conifers and then down into Skiff Wood where there is a circular path that you can follow either way to get out at the bottom. From the exit of the wood, it's no more than 10 minutes cycle to Milliken Park train station and a well-deserved seat back into central Glasgow.