IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Cardross Road, DUMBARTON, G82 4PY

From the old waterworks on bend of road looking down over Upper Dalquhurn Farm to Renton and new Cordale estate

This is the more westerly of the two square features within the enclosure; for the other, see Image

For the square features to left and right, see Image and Image, respectively. Directly ahead, there is a circular pit about 16 metres across, but it cannot be seen from here because the ground slopes away.

The enclosure lies within a tight bend on Cardross Road: there is an angle of about 60 degrees between the road entering and that leaving. The whole area is included here in a wide-angle view. Click on the end-note title for related pictures, showing what is inside.

This is the more easterly of the two square features within the enclosure. For the other, see Image The pictures were taken from outside the site, through the gate.

This is a muddy path in an out-of-the-way area in a Image

See Image for another view. The present picture is a view from the lower part of the former quarry, looking up the slope that forms its northern edge. The site now has a fairly dense tree cover, and the ground is very muddy, but it was at or near this spot, at the Image, that a concert was held in October of 1886 to commemorate the official opening of Image (see that link for more details). The audience were seated on the slopes, while the fairly small band occupied a rather cramped fenced-off area down below. Back then, the area did not have the present tree cover, and the ground was considerably drier; in fact, the summer of 1886 had been particularly dry, with the result that the reservoir was slow to fill, a fact that caused some alarm, and which resulted in postponement of the official opening of the reservoir; it had been intended to hold the ceremony a few months earlier. Further, although the sides of this former quarry are fairly steep slopes, the manner in which the quarry had been worked ensured that those slopes had numerous small terraces (better seen in another view – Image), a fact that made seating the concert's audience easier than it might otherwise have been. This western part of the former quarry is quite narrow, so there is not a great deal of level ground at the bottom (see Image); there was not much room here for the band. This area is now fairly inaccessible; in this respect, it might be compared with Murroch Glen (Image), which is just a few miles away; though it would now be considered very much out of the way, the glen was the location of a series of open-air concerts, beginning in June of 1904, and continuing until 1913 [page 162 of "Changing Identities, Ancient Roots" (2006)].

As the map shows, there is a sharp bend in the road here. The view is further obscured by the wall, which encloses some old filter beds (Image / Image). Many drivers will be aware of the danger and beep their horns here, but others will not; pedestrians and drivers alike therefore need to take care. See Image for the part of the road around the corner.

The viewpoint is close to that of Image, in the low ground of the former quarry, but the present picture shows the slopes that make up the quarry's southern edge. The item just linked mentions that these slopes descend in terraces, and the present picture illustrates this more clearly. See Image for a view eastwards along the low ground of the former quarry.

The name Black Castle does not just apply to this particular spot, but includes the surrounding wooded area. The name does not appear on any maps, but many local people, particularly those of the older generation, will be familiar with it. See http://www.geograph.org.uk/tagged/Black+Castle#photo=3658133 for related pictures. This area is a Image, long disused; see that link for further details. [The second end-note has a link to an annotated satellite view: on that map, the site is indicated by a pale blue marker ("Black Castle") at the eastern extremity of one of the pale blue lines, near Carman Reservoir.] Over the many decades since the quarry fell into disuse, it has become densely wooded and overgrown. As mentioned at the last-cited link, the way the quarry was worked has resulted in its having a terraced appearance in several places (see Image), particularly at the eastern end, where the present picture was taken. Some of those terraces are fringed by low walls, the faces where the stone was worked; there is one such rock face at the centre of this picture, but it is overgrown with ferns and other vegetation. The name Black Castle is at least a few decades old. However, before proceeding, I should stress that the explanation of it that I am about to give is speculation on my part. As the area has been described to me, there are stones visible here (see, for example, Image) and what looks like the foundations of buildings. This being a quarry, there can hardly have been buildings here. However, the various terrace-like areas fringed with low stone walls may have suggested, to walkers passing through, the appearance of ruins, and this perhaps inspired the name Black Castle (possibly "black" because located in the shade of the woods). Decades ago, when the area was not quite so overgrown, those features would have been more clearly visible than they are now. In short, the name Black Castle may simply have seemed an appropriate nickname; even those who coined the name probably did not seriously imagine that there had ever been a castle here. Particularly at the western end of the former quarry, the construction of Image in the 1880s, from the smaller pre-existing Carman Loch (which had itself been artificially created), is also likely to have left its mark on the area. For more on the formation of the reservoir, see the link just cited. There are a few references to a "Carman Quarry" in older literature, but that name seems to refer to a later quarry, which is a little over a kilometre WNW of here, and which had its own set of traditions associated with it: Image