Early Inhabitants

The Stone Age
The first people to inhabit the Overtoun area probably arrived in the late Stone Age (7500 - 5500 BC) wandering and eking out an existence by hunting and gathering.

The Neolithic Age
It was not until the Neolithic Age (3500 - 3000 BC) that the climate of the region had improved so that man could live in settlements with organised agriculture and domesticated animals. These Neolithic settlers came from north east Ireland and replaced the Stone Age peoples they found them.

The Celts
The Celtic peoples came from the Low Countries (Holland and Belgium) in the early Iron Age (300 BC - 80 AD) and left their mark on place names such as the Clyde itself. The Celts were farmers and lived in palisaded (fenced) enclosures of 25 to 30 people, usually comprising an extended family or clan. There is nearby archaeological evidence of the long term settlement of the Dumbarton area comprising of a fort, a dun and a crannog.

The Romans
When the Romans invaded Scotland in 80AD the area around Overtoun was occupied by a tribe called the Votadini who seemed to has caused the Romans some trouble and were one of the many reasons why the two defensive walls of the emperors Hadrian and Antoninus were built around 120 AD and 142 AD respectively.

There is no evidence of Roman occupation on the Overtoun site itself but there was a fort at Old Kilpatrick, the Western Terminal fort of the Antonine Wall. There must have been a lot of Roman activity in the area, as this fort was very important for a time in the second half of the 2nd century AD. As the Roman empire became overstretched they left Scotland for good in 368 AD and Britain fifty years later.

The Britons
With the departure of the Romans in 368 AD the large Kingdom of Strathclyde grew up in the vacuum they left behind, with a capital at Dumbarton. This was the result of the combination of two tribes, the Damnonii and the Votadini. They became known as the North Britons, indeed the name Dumbarton itself comes from "Dun-Breatann" which means "Fortress of the Britons".

This kingdom lasted until 870 AD when it was destroyed by meandering Vikings, based in Dublin. Weakened by these attacks, the Kingdom of Strathclyde succumbed to the onslaught of the Scottish tribe from Ireland, from whom Scotland got its name, and the Picts from northern Scotland, united under the great king Kenneth MacAlpin. Most of the nobles of Strathclyde fled to their kin in north Wales and the common people of the area around Overtoun became subjects of a descendent of the Scottish kings who finally united lowland Scotland into one kingdom in the middle of the 11th century.

Read about the subsequent history of the Overtoun estate...