770
order to pass into the country on the southern side. They plainly had a
station upon the hill of Paisley as remains evince, and seem indeed to
have had their villas along the southern batk of the frith, even within Ayr-
shire (q).
The descendants of the Damnii, upon the recession of the Romans, remained
in possession of all those countries during several ages.
The British kingdom of Strathclyde very probably comprehended the whole
district of the present Renfrewshire, and the Britons living within it partook
of the advantages or disadvantages of the troublous times, and specious ad-
ventures of the irritable people living for many ages in the British kingdom of
Strathclyde.
In this shire there are not many remains of the ancient people of Celtic
times. In Kilbarchan parish, however, there remains about two miles
south-west of the village, a large upright stone which is called Clochodrick,
and this name is supposed to be a corruption of Cloch-a-druid, the stone of
the Druids (r). It consists of the common whinstone of the country, and is
about 22 feet long, 17 feet broad, and 12 feet high. It is of a rude oval
figure, extending east and west. At some distance around are some few
large gray stones, but as the land is in tillage, and some of them have been
carried away, it cannot be clearly understood whether they had any con-
nection with the great stone, as forming all the same objects of Druid
worship (s).
In Houston parish there is an ancient stone cross with various figures
sculptured on it, but having no inscription it cannot easily be ascertained
whether it denoted the fall of some noted warrior, or whether it was erected to
commemorate some remarkable event (t).
In Kilmalcolm there are three remarkable mounts in a row from west to
east. Whether those hills had any connection with the Druid worship, or if
they were rather used for the administration of justice in the early times of
the Scoto-Saxon period, cannot be clearly ascertained (u).
(q) See Caledonia, vol. i. ch. 2.
(r) Stat. Account, xv. 487. Cloch-y-drywd in the British, and Cloch-a-draoi' ach in the
Gaelic, signify the stone of the Druids. This remarkable stone gave its name to the adjacent
hamlet and lands which are mentioned in a charter of Alan the son of Walter the Stewart, in the
twelfth century, by the name of Cloch-rodric. Chart. Paisley, No. 40. Cloch-roderic, both in the
British and Gaelic, signifies the stone of Roderic. Roderick is the English form of the British
Rydderech, which was a common name among the Strathclyde Britons ; and Bydderrech, the bountiful,
was one of the reguli of the Strathclyde kingdom.
(s) Stat. Account, xv. 487.                                              (t) Ib. i. 326-7.
(u) By the common people they are called Laws, or Law-hills, from a notion that they were used
in administering law to the people. Ib. iv. 278.