File:The first of a group of three shielings - geograph.org.uk - 1759026.jpg

English: The first of a group of three shielings. As explained in the link given in the end-note, the remains of three shielings are visible at this location, at the foot of the north-eastern side of a hill; the hill is apparently unnamed, but it is about 500 metres south-west of the main summit of Cochno Hill. [The dykes mentioned in the link in the end-note may be part of a larger field system; see 1759087.]

John Mitchell, in the booklet "The Shielings and Drove Ways of Loch Lomondside", explains that the shielings were mainly inhabited by woman and children, who accompanied cattle and goats to their high summer grazing ground (this was in the era before such high ground became impoverished as a result of the presence of huge numbers of sheep). Only the lower parts of the walls of the shielings were made of stone (see the booklet for further details of their construction). He notes that this way of life probably died out (in this area, at least) in about 1780.

The foreground of the photograph shows the most westerly of the three shielings; as seen from this angle, the other two lie behind it, but they are hidden from view by tufts of tall grass: 1759051 and 1759050.

Note that the centre of this shieling is indicated by a stick with a pink label on top; the other two shielings, and a few less distinct mounds nearby, were marked out in the same way. Elsewhere on the slopes of Cochno Hill, the boundaries of some new plantations were delineated in a similar manner, but with differently-coloured labels; these markers therefore appear to have been placed by archaeologists (during their recent survey of the area) for the benefit of forestry workers.

Erskine, Renfrew, and the areas beyond them, are visible through the gap in the hills.