Murroch Glen

An incoming rain shower can be seen over the Luss Hills in the distance.

Looking over an area of fairly new plantings towards the distant Luss Hills, where a rain shower looms.

This is NOT an aerial shot; it is taken from the rim of the gorge. The impressive depth can be gauged by noticing the small white specks towards the top of the picture. They are in fact sheep. The depth attracts a micro climate. Above the rim there are almost no trees or bushes. Lower down there is an abundance of yellow gorse bushes. A few weeks later there is a dazzling display of white May blossom from the many Hawthorn Trees. This shot is taken about 100 metres upstream of where Auchenreoch Glen joins Murroch Burn. Substantial footwear is required to access the area. Start at Garshake Road in Dumbarton and following the footpath which skirts to the left of Marylands Farm, past the remains of the WWII Starfish Shelter and eventually up onto the moors.

This a view along the length of the faint traces of an ancient farm building. For the main description, see NS4277 : Remains of an ancient farmhouse. In the present view, the building's near end wall is located just in front of the area of brown tufts of grass in the foreground. The building takes up about half of the width of the image, and, from either end of the area of brown tufts, traces of the long side-walls of the building recede into the distance. This view makes it clearer that the building is located almost at the edge of a fairly steep stream valley, which is just to the north (right) of the ruin. The hills on the skyline, in the right-hand side of the image, are Carman Hill (NS3779) and the adjacent muirs to the north. The trees in the middle distance, partly obscured by the grassy foreground area, are alongside the Garshake Burn. The more distant area of woodland at the left-hand edge of the image is Square Wood (see NS4177 : The edge of Square Wood).

This long-abandoned farmstead does not appear, even as a ruin, on the first-edition OS map (surveyed in 186o), nor on any subsequent OS maps. It is not even shown on Roy's Military Survey of Scotland (1740s-50s); evidently the farmstead had already been abandoned by that early date. Since it is not shown on any maps, its name is, for now, unknown. [This farmstead had not hitherto been reported to WoSAS, so I submitted a report for their database. The ruin lies within an area that has recently been purchased by the Woodland Trust Scotland, so additional details may well come to light; incidentally, the WTS have been made aware of the site, and are, I am pleased to say, amenable to its preservation.] The farm building itself is located in the lower half of the photograph, and fills most of the width of the image, but it is not very easy to pick out on the ground, let alone in a photograph. Traces of the more distant of the two long side walls follow the far edge of the green area that makes up the foreground (specifically, the lower half) of the image; the other side wall is just in front of it. One of the end walls is beside the line of tufts of tall grass on the right. The other end wall is beside the taller tufts at the left-hand edge of the image. For a view along the length of the building from its eastern end, see NS4277 : Remains of an ancient farmhouse. No exposed stone is visible here. The footings of the building are apparent only as indistinct ridges in the grass. Nevertheless, it was possible to follow the building's outline on the ground. It measured approximately 9.4 metres long by 4.1 metres wide, with its long axis oriented WNW-ESE. At least one cross-wall was also apparent, dividing the building into rooms; the largest room was at the western end (on the left, in this image), and was 5.5 metres long (that figure includes the width of the western wall of the building and that of the dividing cross-wall). There may have been another cross-wall very close to the eastern end of the building, creating a narrow space there, but it was hard to tell, given the faintness of the ruins. The building is set on high ground between the Overtoun Burn (which is to the south-east) and the Garshake Burn and the Black Burn (to the north-west). Only a metre or two to the north of the building is the steep valley of a stream that drains into the Garshake Burn; the building is perched almost at the edge, and would certainly have commanded a fine view to the west and the north. The farm building lies at the northern corner of a more or less rectangular enclosure that has the same orientation as the building, and which measures 85 metres (WNW-ESE) by 45 metres. This enclosure is very faint on the ground; see the end-note for an annotated satellite image(*). The full extent of the farmstead may be much greater. [(*) For a much more revealing satellite view of these remains, I would recommend using the "Historical Imagery" function in Google Earth, and looking at the imagery for this area that is dated Jan 28th, 2005. In that dataset alone, the sun's angle of illumination is exceptionally shallow, making the farm building visible, revealing the rectangular enclosure to the south, and even showing cultivation patterns within the enclosure. In satellite images taken on other dates, these features are more or less invisible.] More obvious, both on the ground and in satellite imagery, are the outlines of some irregular sub-enclosures that are located within the eastern half of the main enclosure. Just to the south-west of the enclosure, a braided trackway (a closely-grouped and intertwining set of old tracks) passes nearby. Many of the tracks are worn fairly deep, but all of them are seen most clearly in the 2005 satellite imagery that was mentioned above. These tracks are probably at least as old as the farmstead, and they lead for a considerable distance to the north-east, mainly in the direction of Meikle White Hill (NS4478), where lime-kiln ruins have been reported. [A similar system of braided trackways begins near NS42087781, on the other side of the Garshake Burn, and forms a very extensive network there, leading to many sites where there are traces of limestone quarrying or of ruined lime-kilns (the lime-burning industry flourished in this area in the eighteenth century). For further details, see NS4278 : Signs of former industry at the Spouts Burn, which discusses one of the sites to which these tracks lead.]

In the sides of the glen of the Overtoun Burn, examples of Ballagan Beds are visible, with lighter layers of cementstone conspicuous among the layers of shale (compare NS4178 : Ballagan Beds in Auchenreoch Glen). The formation, precipitated out from shallow seas or lagoons, is of Lower Carboniferous age. For further context, see a more distant view: NS4377 : The glen of the Overtoun Burn. For further examples, and for nearby parts of the glen, see, for example, NS4377 : Rocky side of Overtoun Glen, NS4377 : Overtoun Burn and Glen, and NS4377 : Overtoun Glen. The geological type location, where the best example of the Ballagan Formation can be seen, is Ballagan Glen (NS5779)

The grey areas, with conspicuous banding, on the valley sides are examples of Ballagan Beds, with layers of cementstone and shale. For further details, and for a closer look at the formation on the left, from down inside the glen, see NS4377 : Ballagan Beds in Overtoun Glen.

For other parts of the glen, see, for example, NS4377 : Ballagan Beds in Overtoun Glen (and the links given there), and NS4377 : Falls on Overtoun Burn, NS4377 : Fence over Overtoun Burn, NS4377 : Overtoun Burn, and NS4377 : Steep side of glen by Overtoun Burn.

In this uphill view, the eastern extremity of Black Wood can be seen at the top of the slope. For a view in the opposite direction, see NS4377 : A tributary of the Overtoun Burn. For a similar view, but from further down the slope, see NS4377 : A tributary of the Overtoun Burn.

This is the same burn as shown in NS4377 : A tributary of the Overtoun Burn, viewed in the opposite direction. The Lang Craigs (the escarpment of the Kilpatrick Hills) can be seen in the background. The densely-wooded area in the middle distance surrounds a NS4377 : Disused quarry.

These outcrops lie near the top of the slope that is shown in NS4377 : A tributary of the Overtoun Burn. The Lang Craigs, the escarpment of the Kilpatrick Hills, can be seen in the background.

This is part of a braided trackway that runs SW-NE, beginning at about NS42577752, just to the west of Black Wood, and running parallel to its edge. Not far ahead, the tracks continue uninterrupted beyond the line of a more recent NS4377 : Dry-stone wall. The land levels out ahead, and there is therefore little background; for further context, see a view of the track in the opposite direction: NS4377 : Ancient trackway. As the term "braided" suggests, there is, for most of the length of the system, not a single track, but an interweaving set of them. One good (and fairly deep) example is shown at the centre of the present photograph, but part of another can be seen near the left-hand edge of the picture, near the horizon. A similar set of tracks begins near Maryland Farm, at about NS42147791. However, on tracing their course, I found that these tracks, and the ones shown in the present photograph, are all part of an extended network that links several locations of former limestone quarrying, and sites where lime-kiln ruins are evident. The local limestone industry flourished in the eighteenth-century. This system of tracks passes very close to the southern corner of an enclosure associated with an old farmstead (on which, see Link for further details and for more images). The farmstead apparently dates from before the middle of the eighteenth century, and the tracks seem to date from the same general period. They certainly pre-date the first-edition OS map (c.1860).

For a view in the opposite direction, and for further details, see NS4377 : Ancient trackway. In the present picture, the track is the hollow way that leads away from the lower-left corner of the image; there are similar features nearby, running parallel to it. At first sight, it might easily be taken for the course of a dried-up burn, but that is not the case. Instead, this is part of an extended system of tracks that leads at least as far as Meikle White Hill (NS4478). Black Wood is in the middle distance, on the left. Slightly closer, on the right, is a greenish area. This is part of the enclosure associated with an ancient farmstead (see Link for details). The tracks pass very close to the enclosure. The River Clyde is a more distant feature of the background.

The dyke is marked on the first-edition OS map (c.1860). The tracks shown in NS4377 : Ancient trackway and NS4377 : Ancient trackway continue uninterrupted through the line of the dyke. Those deep tracks were not worn by people, nor by vehicles of recent times (there are no gaps in the wall). Instead, they considerably pre-date the wall. The low broad shape of Meikle White Hill is in the background, on the right; it is one of the destinations of the tracks (see the links just cited). Not far to the east of this point, a much older field boundary meets this dyke: NS4377 : Dry-stone wall and older field boundary.

The NS4377 : Dry-stone wall is old enough to appear on the first-edition OS map (c.1860), but an older boundary can be seen here, as a grass-covered ridge, joining it from the right. For the latter, see NS4377 : Old field boundary and NS4377 : Old field boundary.

This is the same boundary as shown in NS4377 : Old field boundary; see that item for further information. The two pictures were taken from the same point, but looking in opposite directions. In the present photograph, the old boundary meets the line of a more recent dry-stone wall not far ahead; the place where they meet is shown in NS4377 : Dry-stone wall and older field boundary. A line of low hills forms the more distant backdrop, with Carman Hill at the left-hand end; the muirs to the north of that hill appear to its right.

The green area that fills the entire width of the foreground is the interior of an almost rectangular enclosure associated with the NS4277 : Remains of an ancient farmhouse; see that item for the main description. The enclosure is, like the associated farm building, rather hard to make out on the ground, by most standards. The green foreground area is near the north-eastern corner of the enclosure; the NE corner itself is represented by a curving ridge at the right-hand edge of the picture. Positioned centrally in the foreground is a deeper, dark green area, receding from the photographer's position. Its appearance suggests that it was a well-used route into and out of the enclosure. Just to the left of that deep track is a raised ridge; this is part of one of two sub-enclosures (or structures), perhaps for livestock. Unlike the main enclosure, those structures are reasonably easy to see on the ground, and on satellite imagery. For an annotated satellite view, see the link in the end-note, where a pin shows the position of the area shown in this photograph, in relation to the other visible features.