Auchmountain Road

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Auchmountain Road by Lairich Rig as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Auchmountain Road

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 25 Sep 2010

The name of the road changes at the section shown here; ahead, it is known as Image [The name Auchmountain has its origins in the farmstead of Achmugdon, which is shown on Roy's Military Survey of Scotland (1740s-50s). On John Ainslie's 1796 map of Renfrewshire, it is called Aughmugton. By the time of the earliest OS maps (1850s), the name has become Auchmountain. The farm was located alongside the Craigieknowe Burn, at Image; according to OS map evidence, it disappeared in the 1920s or 1930s as a result of housing developments. See also Image] Greenock also had an Auchmountain Shipping Company. The firm launched a barque called "Auchmountain" in 1892. Unfortunately, on its maiden voyage, while the vessel was moored near the entrance of the Gare Loch, and after twenty tons of gunpowder had been loaded into the rear hold, a fire broke out. The crew (and an alarmed stowaway) all escaped safely. The captain and some of the crew later returned to throw as much of the gunpowder overboard as they could, but they had to withdraw when they realised that they were running out of time. When the inevitable explosion occurred, in the early hours of the morning, it blew out hundreds of windows in Greenock, Gourock and Dumbarton. The inhabitants of Pollokshaws (which is over twenty miles away, and a considerable distance inland, on the south side of Glasgow) thought that a small earthquake had occurred. See the book "Clyde Shipwrecks" (1988, Peter Moir and Ian Crawford) for full details. The Auchmountain Shipping Company went into liquidation soon afterwards.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
55.932113
Longitude
-4.728958