Banton, North Lanarkshire

Banton is a small village situated near Kilsyth in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.

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Kelvinhead

Kelvinhead is a small hamlet in the vicinity of the village of Banton in Scotland. Located close to the source of the River Kelvin, it is little more than a collection of a few houses along the A803 road between Kilsyth and Banknock. Kelvinhead is reputedly the site where the first crop of potatoes was grown in Scotland. Kelvinhead is uniquely situated providing access to the Core Footpath Network in the Kelvin Valley. The Forth and Clyde canal is easily accessible which provides walking, cycling and angling. To the north there is a path to Banton Loch and the Kilsyth Hills.

Battle of Kilsyth

The Battle of Kilsyth, fought on 15 August 1645 near Kilsyth, was an engagement of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The largest battle of the conflict in Scotland, it resulted in victory for the Royalist general Montrose over the forces of the Covenanter-dominated Scottish Parliament, and marked the end of General William Baillie's pursuit of the Royalists.

Kingdom of Strathclyde

Strathclyde (Welsh: Ystrad Clud, "valley of the Clyde"), also known as Cumbria, was a Brittonic kingdom in northern Britain during the Middle Ages. It comprised parts of what is now southern Scotland and North West England, a region the Welsh tribes referred to as Yr Hen Ogledd (“the Old North"). At its greatest extent in the 10th century, it stretched from Loch Lomond to the River Eamont at Penrith. Strathclyde seems to have been annexed by the Goidelic-speaking Kingdom of Alba in the 11th century, becoming part of the emerging Kingdom of Scotland. In its early days it was called the kingdom of Alt Clud, the Brittonic name of its capital, and it controlled the region around Dumbarton Rock. This kingdom emerged during Britain's post-Roman period and may have been founded by the Damnonii people. After the sack of Dumbarton by a Viking army from Dublin in 870, the capital seems to have moved to Govan and the kingdom became known as Strathclyde. It expanded south to the Cumbrian Mountains, into the former lands of Rheged. The neighbouring Anglo-Saxons called this enlarged kingdom Cumbraland. We do not know what the inhabitants called their polity, though it may have been referred to as “Cumbria.” The language of Strathclyde is known as Cumbric, which was closely related to Old Welsh. Its inhabitants were referred to as Cumbrians. There was some later settlement by Vikings or Norse–Gaels (see Scandinavian Scotland), although to a lesser degree than in neighbouring Galloway. A small number of Anglian place-names show some settlement by Anglo-Saxons from Northumbria. Owing to the series of language changes in the area, it is unclear whether any Gaelic settlement took place before the 11th century.

Banton Loch

Banton Loch, also known as Kilsyth Loch, Townhead Reservoir and once nicknamed Bakers' Loch, is an artificial freshwater lake located to the east of Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK, and which supplies water to the highest stretch of the Forth and Clyde Canal. The reservoir is widely credited as a work of John Smeaton in the 1770s and 1780s, in connection with the canal. However a history of the Glasgow Incorporation of Bakers asserts a reservoir at Townhead prior to the canal scheme, and describes Kilmannan Reservoir as a replacement for Townhead, funded by the canal company in recompense for water diverted from the River Kelvin, upon which the bakers relied to drive their mills.