By Kenneth McElroy

Queen’s Park has stirred the interest of historians and archeologists for a long time. In this article, Ken McElroy explores the fascinating history of how the popular space has been used over time by digging beneath the surface.

Ken McElroy in Queen's Park — McElroy on top of the Earthworks

There is nothing quite like plonking yourself down on a Queen’s Park bench, with a Continental Deli ‘Hot ‘n’ Spicy’ in hand, and watching the world go by. Joggers compete with waddling ducks for path space, Glasgow School of Art fashionistas rock their charity shop finds, young parents chat with auld heids, Tinder dates converge at the flagpole, bairns take turns to roll down the hill, skateboards scrape along the steps of Queen’s Park arena, and then there’s the never-ending array of doggos on parade.

Queen’s Park holds a key place in the heart of many Southsiders. The number of different people who frequent it on a daily basis tells you that much. Of course, this is a well-presented green space, with several paths and features to enjoy, and so you might expect it to be busy. But even prior to its development as a park in the late 19th century by Sir Charles Paxton, this place has been an important part of Glasgow.

There is a very obvious reason for this; the hill (which is actually a ‘drumlin’, if you want to be pedantic about it – drumlins are elongated, teardrop-shaped hills of rock, sand and gravel that formed under moving glacier ice, tens of thousands of years ago). The drumlin here, named Camphill – once the original name for Queen’s Park – is the focal point of the park, offering extensive views across the city. It is also where you can find some of the oldest remnants of the Queen’s Park story.

At the top of Camphill, obscured by a ring of trees and vegetation, is a monument which no doubt goes unnoticed by a great many Queens Park visitors. A substantial ring of earth can be found atop the hill, some 1.2m high in places and measuring roughly 93 x 95m. It forms an enclosure of sorts – but what is it? The truth is difficult to discern.

The name ‘Camphill’ comes from the local perception that the hill was the site of a Roman encampment. Interestingly enough, a shard of Samian ware pottery (a type popular throughout the Roman Empire) was found here in 1985. A coin bearing the image of Drusus (son of the emperor Tiberius), dating to around 23 AD, was also found prior to the construction of the Camphill Bowling Green. According to Dr Kenny Brophy, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Glasgow, it has been suggested that the hilltop ‘enclosure’ dates to the Iron Age – making it potentially over 2,000 years old. Yet Brophy writes on his blog, The Urban Prehistorian, that this “has never been established – although the form and location of the site means it cannot be ruled out”.

As far back as 1867, attempts were made to try and understand the monument. A crude excavation took place here where a ‘paved surface’ and a ‘cake of charred oats mixed with fragments of oak’ (which sounds like a Southside cake, right enough) as well as a millstone were discovered. This led some to suspect it was a settlement or a corn drying kiln – very different conclusions!

Almost a century later, archaeologists Horace Fairhurst and Jack Scott investigated the site in greater detail. Their excavations did not reveal any Iron Age origins, and their evaluation has been described as ‘rather limp’ by Brophy. They concluded that they suspected it could be Iron Age in origin, but their discovery of sherds of 14th century pottery and a fragment of blue glass cast doubt on this hypothesis. In the end, the pair regarded the site as a ‘clay castle’, which is something of a vague descriptor.

Though the excavations were somewhat inconclusive as to whether or not Camphill was prehistoric in nature, there is tantalising evidence of another nearby prehistoric subterranean structure discovered just by Queen’s Park on Minard Road, sometime before 1918. There is only a brief mention of this in records held by Canmore (Scotland’s national record of the historic environment), which states: “An underground galleried and alcoved house was brought to light at 36 Minard Road”. This may have been a monument known as a ‘souterrain’, which comes from the French for underground, or perhaps a dwelling. This would indicate the area has been inhabited, used and traversed long before Paxton designed and instigated his park plans.

Despite Fairhurst and Scott’s excavations leading to something of a disappointing assessment of Camphill, they also made a fitting find. Leading out from the enclosure was a ‘stretch of trampled clay’ with ‘patches of gravel’. This has been suggested to be the remains of an ancient road or routeway – potentially the oldest to have been found in the city – suggesting that people have been trampling around Queen’s Park for hundreds if not thousands of years!

Queen’s Park is many things to different people – a place to relax and unwind, meet with friends, coo at signets or just stretch your legs. But it’s also a place of real historic and prehistoric significance; something else to consider when you’re next sitting on that bench.