Square Wood

There is a footpath running alongside a fence (for the most part) close to the edge of this steep impressive escarpment. The Kilpatrick Hills, though only reaching around 400 metres at their highest, have the feel of something a bit bigger. The hills take their name from a village on the Western outskirts of Glasgow called Old Kilpatrick, which translates as 'old church of Patrick'. It is said by some that St Patrick - the patron saint of Ireland and credited with founding Christianity there - grew up near the village before being kidnapped (for whatever reason!) by Irish pirates.

The area of woodland and grassland beneath Lang Craigs is managed by Forestry and Land Scotland, an agency of the Scottish Government. Dumbarton Rock is visible beside the Firth of Clyde in the distance.

Extensive tree plantings have been made by Forestry and Land Scotland (who manage the site) in this area beneath the basalt lava escarpment of the Lang Craigs.

The basalt lava escarpment of the Lang Craigs looms over the network of paths below, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland, an agency of the Scottish Government.

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

The path passes through a collapsed section of drystane dyke here, and can be followed on to Doughnot Hill.

A section of old rusty fencing can be seen here.

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.]

This path is a remnant of an NS4176 : Avenue to Overtoun House that was built in the nineteenth century. The path leads from NS4175 : Dumbarton, Old Overtoun Estate Gateway to one of the entrances of the present-day Overtoun Estate (NS4175 : Pedestrian access to Overtoun Estate), and forms part of two circular walks, namely, The Crags Circular Path and Overtoun House Circular Path. For a view from further along the path, see NS4175 : Path to Overtoun Estate.

This photograph was taken just a little further along the path that is shown in NS4175 : Path to Overtoun Estate; see that item for further information. Visible not far ahead, in the present photograph, are the backs of some of the houses on NS4176 : MacPhie Road, High Overtoun. There is an extensive patch of Butterbur on the right; the leaves are much larger when fully grown. This path is a remnant of an NS4176 : Avenue to Overtoun House that was built in the nineteenth century.

This is part of a signposted route. Part of the escarpment of the Kilpatrick Hills can be seen in the background, on the right.

Roundwood Hill, formerly the site of a plantation, is near the centre of the image; see NS4377 : Roundwood Hill. The escarpment of the Kilpatrick Hills is on the right.

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.