Layout and Location - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 137

There are some odd things about that. Going southwest North
Woodside Road dips right down to the river Kelvin, runs along it as
South Woodside Road, then climbs to the west as Gibson Street.
University Avenue itself climbs steeply, passing near the top of
the Gilmorehill to which the university moved in 1864. It seems a
very difficult route for cattle.
“Plan of the City of Glasgow, Gorbells, Caltoun and Environs,
with an Exact Delineation of its Royalty, from an actual Survey by
James Barry, 1782,” confirms that St. James's Road is a modern
name, and Dobbie's Loan, with its present spelling, was then the
name all the way from what is now Castle Street, i.e., from within
yards of the Cathedral. It also shows that the present southwest
turn to meet Garscube Road is a detour forced by commercial
development around the Glasgow Branch of the Forth and Clyde
Canal. In 1782 the road went south around the bend of the canal,
possibly following a contour, but then turned northwest again,
crossed Garscube Road at a staggered junction and went on with
the label 'Road to Kelvin Ford' (Fig. 5.11 ). In that section it may
well have coincided with the appropriate part of North Woodside
Road, and if the drover's road turned south again it would have
entered Byres Road, logically enough. What is intriguing is that in
prehistoric times, the line of Dobbie's Loan would have led from
the Grummel Knowe towards midsummer sunset, to Broomhill
and then straight for Knappers at Clydebank.
'The Simerhill' mentioned, also spelled 'Symmerhill' or 'Sum-
merhill,' was also known as the 'Hill of Cowcaldanis,' and was a
large hill, now largely obliterated by the canal and the motorway.
'The Hills of Glasgow,' a 1906 article, redrew a seventeenth century
print from Slezer's Theatrum Scotiae to show the Summerhill's rela-
tion to Broomhill and the original Sighthill to the north (Fig. 5.12 ) .
The name is relatively modern but derives from a midsummer fes-
tival that was held on it from pre-Reformation times and whose
antiquity was unknown. It began with the riding of the marches
by the “Provost, baillies, and counsale, and deikines [deacons] on
horseback,” followed by “the haill [whole] inhabitants, fremen
[freemen], and burgessis, with their armour, on futte.” Thereafter
a court was held on the hill at which “the town's twa herds,” the
birlawmen, the drummer and “minstrells” or pipers were appointed
for the coming year, and other “use and wont” municipal business