Castlehead - Early History

Early History

Prior to the nineteenth century, Castlehead was a tract of rising ground called Huthead. Situated to the southwest of Paisley's teeming West End, its difficult terrain and the separation provided by the Paisley and Ardrossan Canal and later the Glasgow and South Western Railway kept it apart and undeveloped. Its only buildings were a church and manse at the foot of the hill and the 1771 Old House, originally a farm. A map dated 1839 shows the remnants of a Roman encampment and there is some evidence that Huthead/Camphill, together with the hills at Oakshaw and Woodside, had made up the Roman out-station of Vanduara.

Canal Street Church, now Castlehead Church was the next building to appear. It was built by Paisley weavers between 1781-82, and later refurbished in 1868 . Among those buried in its churchyard were the poet Robert Tannahill and the maternal great-grandparents of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The President visited the site during a brief trip to Scotland in 1991 .