Refers to railings

“In your column on Wednesday, Hamish Mitchell asked about ‘Pillter’ referring to the railings round the Hilltown clock,” says Innes Duffus, Archivist to the Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee.

“Unless someone has a better idea, I would suggest that this may well be a local (Hilltown) corruption of the word ‘Pilaster’,” he says.

“A Pilaster refers to the railings round a wall, albeit from memory, that the wall in this instance was only around a foot high.”