Twechar is a small former mining village historically in Dunbartonshire and administered by the council area of East Dunbartonshire, Scotland close to the boundary with North Lanarkshire. It lies between the larger towns of Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch. The Forth and Clyde Canal runs close to the village to the north, and closely follows the line of the Antonine Wall. There are visible remains of the wall on Bar Hill and the Roman Fort is a local tourist attraction. History The etymology of the name is probably ‘causeway or pavement’. Several old documents show Twechar with various spellings including maps by Charles Ross, and William Roy. There is a long history of mining activity in the Twechar locality but it was not until the coming of William Baird & Co. to the area, about 1860, that a close-knit mining community was created. Before that time Shirva was described as having the best farm land in the parish. Several tombstones from a possible Roman Cemetery were found at Shirva House. A legionary slab was also discovered. In 2020 a replica of the Eastermains stone was installed in Twechar. It was found on near the discovery site of the 20th Legion's slab: on Eastermains Farm (which adjoins Whitehill), west of Inchbelly Bridge, east of Kirkintilloch and is often associated with Auchendavy. It has been scanned and a video produced. It is similar to two other distance slabs of the Sixth Legion. Mining Pits were sunk at Twechar and Gartshore and a row of workers' houses was built on the south bank of the Forth and Clyde canal, just east of Twechar Bridge. The coal mining industry begun by the Bairds in the 1860s lasted for just over a century. Twechar No.1 Pit, on the north bank of the canal to the east of Twechar Bridge, closed in 1964, while Gartshore 9/11, the very last colliery in the area, was shut down in 1968. Thereafter some Twechar men travelled each day to collieries such as Bedlay and Cardowan in Lanarkshire, until they too were closed, during the early 1980s. Baird & Co. provided rail connections to their local pits at an early date but for many years much of their coal was transported to market by canal boat. During the 1860s the canal company permitted Baird & Co. to place a railway swing bridge over the canal, a short distance to the west