The Fords of Frew were an important crossing point over the River Forth. A passage between Highlands and Lowlands that has played a vital role in Scotland’s history. Lying south of the great morass of Flanders Moss its significance has been forgotten by the draining of these boglands for agriculture over the past two hundred and fifty years but for centuries, millenia, it was vital bridging point between cultures. From Bronze Age to Jacobites many warriors have passed over the narrow half-land.
When the Picts invaded the lands of their southern rivals the Strathclyde Britons they most likely crossed into their territory via the Fords making for their enemy’s fort at Dumbarton on the Clyde but as the Welsh ‘Chronicle of the Princes’ relates :
‘750 years was the age of Christ when there was a battle between the Britons and the Picts, in the field of Maesydawc. And the Britons slew Talorcan, king of the Picts.’
Robin A Crawford 