IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hillside Road, GLASGOW, G78 1ES

Attractive road in the outskirts of Barrhead.

At the time of writing, the path is not marked on the map, but the adjacent dry-stone wall and fence are marked as a boundary on the 1:25000 map. See Image for a view in the opposite direction from 60 metres to the south-west on the same path.

The fence is encountered after walking a little further along the old path shown in Image The skyline hill a little left of centre is Neilston Pad (Image) in Image ("so called from its resemblance to a pillion" – OS Name Books). The Old Statistical Account (1792) had earlier commented on the name: "The craig of Nielston, in the south part of the parish is the highest in the district, and the only hill which stands by itself, not forming a ridge or tract of the country. It is vulgarly called the Pad, from having in its appearance the form of a pillion. It is 820 feet about the flood mark, and yet is all green, and arable to the very top, though now only used for pasture." The book "Paisley Poets" (1890) elaborates: "The Pad is a local vulgar name given to the Crag of Neilson, from its having the form of a pillion or cushion for a woman to ride behind another person on horseback." The hill on the right, beside the point where the foreground hillside hides the distant skyline from view, is Knockenae Plantation (Image) in Image Some distant wind turbines are visible. Those almost behind the Knockenae Plantation are centred on c.Image Others, near the far left edge of the picture, are centred on c.Image - - • - - The name Fereneze itself is of interest, and local historians have given several different explanations for it (the name struck me as having an odd feel, which is what prompted me to look further into its origin). For example, Robert Brown, in the first volume of his "History of Paisley" (1886), had explained it as "fir ness", that is, "the promontory or upland of firs". David Pride, author of "A History of the Parish of Neilston" (1910), understood it to be derived from Gaelic words meaning "alder meadow" or "alder marsh". More recently, G W S Barrow, in his book "The Kingdom of the Scots" (2003), pointed out that "Fereneze" is a "ghost-name", one that had "apparently arisen through the misinterpretation of a term occurring in documents of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries". Some very early forms of the name can be found in the Paisley charters, which were written in Latin. Transcriptions of them were published in the "Registrum Monasterii de Passelet" (Maitland Club Edition, Edinburgh, 1832). The earliest forms of the name, as found in those charters, are as follows, with their respective dates (and page numbers, which refer to the Maitland Club Edition): • "Forineisun" (1165–73), on page 6, • "Ferineisun" (1177–99), on page 12, and • "Forineisim" (1208–18), occurring twice on page 17. In each of those occurrences, the subject matter is the same: the skins of hinds taken either in ("in"), within ("infra"), or outside ("extra") of Forineisun. Barrow explains that the word that our printed edition transcribes as "Forineisun" should correctly have been read "Formeisun", derived from the Old French "fermeyson", a word which passed into English as "fermison", and which meant "the close season for stags and time for hunting hinds". The charters would then be referring to the skins of hinds that were taken either in or out of that season. This French-derived legal term was later misunderstood to be a place-name, and came to be associated with the particular area that still bears it. Barrow explains that the misunderstanding of the word developed early: a document of 1504 already refers to a "village of Ferrenes" in the parish of Paisley. See Barrow's book, already cited, for further details. The relevant passage is in chapter 15, "The Earliest Stewarts and their Lands".

The subject is as in Image, but the view is in the opposite direction and from a point 60 metres further to the south-west along the path. The partly-wooded hill on the skyline at the left is Neilston Pad (see Image for comments on its name).

The picture was taken from about the same point as Image, but the view is in the opposite direction. It is no longer obvious on the ground that this receding mound is a relic of a path, but the old path (a century old) is still marked as such on the present-day 1:25000 map. The small hill directly ahead on the skyline is Image in Image; on the hill's curious name, see Image

The view is to the left from the foot of a Image

From Gateside Road.

The path whose start is shown in Image climbs first through broom, then turns away from the golf course. This picture looks back along the path, hinting at the great views across the whole of the Glasgow area.

The view is from beside the Image, which I had come across by accident (the trip was unplanned, and I had no map), and it shows the grassy slopes typical of this part of the hills. Barrhead itself is the built-up area in the background. My attention was also drawn to the skyline, and to the small hills visible there. The one at the extreme right is Image in Image ("so called from its resemblance to a pillion" – OS Name Books). The one at the centre of the skyline is Duncarnock in Image, where there is an ancient hill-fort (Image). On the origins of the name Fereneze itself, see Image

Quite a steep slope amongst houses with a southward view.