ROTTENROW?

RATONRAW, RATOWNRAW, RATOUNRAW, RATOWNRAWE, RATTOUNRAW, 

RATTONRAW RATTENRAU, RATTANRAW, victlS RATONUM,'' ViaiS RATOUNE,"

The intersection of the Drygait and Rottenrow with High Street — formerly Hiegait — and Kirkgait was long known as the Wyndheid or Quad- rivium and here the original Cross of Glasgow stood.

High Street reached its greatest elevation at the point called the Bell o' the Brae, just opposite the Rottenrow, and from thence fell slightly towards the Kirkgait. 

The High Street and Rottenrow were nearly on the same level, so that the ascent from the present George Street to the Bell o' the Brae was very steep. This was found inconvenient when wheel traffic increased ; and the level of High Street was cut down in 1783 and in later years. This made the approach to the Cathedral easier, but, on the other hand, the east end of Rottenrow was rendered steep, and had in consequence to be lowered at a later date.

 It is to be remembered that until long after the middle of the eighteenth century nearly all goods were brought into Glasgow upon pack horses. 

See The Scots Mechanics Magazine, i., p. 295, Glasgow, 1825 ; Recollections of fames Turner, pp. 10, 84. The Stockwell Street bridge was originally only nine feet wide, having been intended for foot and horseback passengers and sleds (Pollock v. Magistrates of Glasgow, 17, Campbell's Session Papers, No. 71-7

It has been conjectured that the Roman road did not proceed by way of Rottenrow, but by Dobbie's Loan/ For this suggestion there is no foundation, and it is based upon an old wife's fable to which currency is given in Brown's History of Glasgow} The Romans in their engineering never avoided hills, and having carried their road through the Drygait, the natural course was to continue in a straight line by Rottenrow. 

To take it by way of Dobbie's Loan would have necessitated their turning northwards by Kirkgait till they came to what was afterwards known as the Stable-Green Port, and thence proceeding westwards.

 After the Roman road reached what is now Dundas Street, it may either (i) have continued westwards along theold line of the Road to Clayslap, which was somewhat to the south of Sauchiehall Road, now Sauchiehall Street, to Newton — on the line of the old road to Dumbarton and where Roman coins and other remains have been found ;^ or (2) it may have turned north-westwards along the road which crossed the Kelvin at Garscube Ford, and so on to New Kilpatrick.

Dobbie's Loan, it may be explained, was until the end of the 18th century,a straggling path, which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries formed the access to the crofts and common pasture on the north-west of the city, and apparently had its name from one John Dobbie, who owned land in the early part of the seventeenth century outside the Stable-Green Port, and members of the Dobbie family continued to hold land in the neighbourhood for a hundred and fifty years afterwards. It seems to have been the path which was originally known as the Common Vennel of Stable-Green  or Stabil-grene Lone, the Common or Public Loan, and in earlier days the Common Way  from the Stabel-grene through Provanside to Otterburne's Cors .  It never was a thoroughfare or a road of any importance. Rottenrow, on the other hand, was a via regia, and one of the main arteries of the city from the earliest times.