2017

NS4759 : Cairn in the Fereneze Hills

taken 7 years ago, near to Gateside, East Renfrewshire, Scotland

Cairn in the Fereneze Hills
Cairn in the Fereneze Hills
The view direction is similar to that in another contributor's earlier and more atmospheric picture, the first photograph submitted for this OS grid square: NS4759 : Paisley - Gleniffer Braes Country Park.

For other earlier views that include the cairn and surroundings, see NS4759 : Cairn, Fereneze Hills / NS4759 : Wind Swept Tree, Fereneze Hills / NS4759 : An unnamed summit in the Fereneze Braes.

For two more pictures of the cairn, taken on the same occasion as the present picture, see NS4759 : Cairn in the Fereneze Hills and NS4759 : Cairn in the Fereneze Hills.

There are some outcrops and hollows near the summit: NS4759 : Slope east of a summit cairn / NS4759 : Slope north of a summit cairn.

In the present view, a distant clump of trees can be seen directly beyond the top of the cairn. On the skyline, almost above the right-hand edge of that clump, is Tinto Hill (NS9534, about 55 km away).

The body of water just right of centre is Balgray Reservoir (NS5157), about 4 km / 2½ miles away.

The hill is unnamed, but if it needed a name, Duchal Law seems fitting: Duchallaw is a long-gone farm whose buildings were 275 metres to the NNE; see Link for that site.
Summit with cairn, Fereneze Hills

The hill, crowned with a modern marker cairn, gives good views in many directions. It is not named on OS maps, but it may once have been known as Duchal Law, given that an old farmstead just to the north of the hill was called Duchallaw; of that farm, only indistinct footings remain — see Link for pictures and for more information.

The summit and its surroundings are described at LinkExternal link (at Canmore). The first report there, from 1963, describes various old enclosures on the hill; however, according to comments from 1964 and later, those supposed antiquities were a misinterpretation of more recent features.

The reports also mention, but do not name, a "ruined farm" to the north of the hill; it is the aforementioned Duchallaw.

Another modern marker cairn can be seen on Killoch Hill, 830m to the south: NS4758 : Cairn on Killoch Hill.

Remains of a small, older cairn lie within a plantation about 200m NE of the Killoch Hill cairn one: see LinkExternal link (at Canmore). The picture NS4758 : On Killoch Hill was taken from beside that cairn.

The author of the Old Statistical Account (1792) for the Parish of Neilston relates (original spelling and punctuation retained) that "there are two tumuli, vulgarly called, cairns, on the top of the Faraneze hills, one of them in particular is of considerable bulk, and there is the foundation of a large dyke, or wall around it, still discernable. A great quantity of stones have been led away from it, but nothing except a few small bones, whether human or not was uncertain, have yet been discovered. Tradition reports that a battle was fought there."

It is not clear where these ancient cairns were located, or whether they correspond to the site of any of the more modern cairns mentioned above. On the name Fereneze itself, see NS4959 : The Fereneze Hills.


Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright Lairich Rig and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Geographical Context: Uplands Primary Subject: Cairn Landmark: Tinto Hill other tags: Fereneze Braes Path Network Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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Grid Square
NS4759, 51 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
Lairich Rig   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Thursday, 14 September, 2017   (more nearby)
Submitted
Sunday, 24 September, 2017
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 4780 5942 [10m precision]
WGS84: 55:48.2406N 4:25.7912W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 4779 5942
View Direction
East-southeast (about 112 degrees)
Clickable map
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Image Type (about): geograph 
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