2015

NS3977 : Dalquhurn Point: eroding embankment, with clinker

taken 8 years ago, near to Renton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland

Dalquhurn Point: eroding embankment, with clinker
Dalquhurn Point: eroding embankment, with clinker
There had been little rain in the weeks before this picture was taken; the level of the River Leven was therefore particularly low, and I used this opportunity to examine some of the material that is eroding out of the embankment here on the southern side of Dalquhurn Point.

(The northern side of the Point is less affected by erosion. Altough the river curves on the approach to that side, and its current might therefore be expected to do some damage there, its effects are largely counteracted by a weir that breaks up the river's flow: NS3977 : Weir on the River Leven. In addition, there is an old but sturdy wall forming an embankment on that part of Dalquhurn Point, very similar to the one shown in NS3977 : Old embankment (detail); that section of wall is across the river from the end of Dalquhurn Point.)

Some of the material eroding from the embankment is in the form of old bricks, and these can often be dated, by their manufacturers' stamps, to the final decades of the nineteenth century, but of greater interest to me were the many pieces of NS3977 : Clinker that were also eroding from the soil here. The link just given shows one of the larger pieces that I saw in the area shown in the present picture, but there were many much smaller fragments.

(Clinker can mean several things, but more specifically, the material found eroding from the bank here is the residue from the burning of coal, rather than from the smelting of ores.)

As noted in the end-note, OS maps do not show buildings on Dalquhurn Point at any period, and it is unlikely that the clinker would have originated here.

I examined old OS maps of the area, and these revealed the real reason for the presence of clinker here: a short section of railway line is shown on the 1914 OS map as leading off from the Cordale Branch line (see the end-note) and heading along the southern side of Dalquhurn Point. The course of that line is still evident, as a path: NS3977 : Dalquhurn Point: former course of railway track / NS3977 : Dalquhurn Point: former course of railway track.

The southern edge of Dalquhurn Point is now eroding, as the picture shows, but just inland of it, where the track ran, the ground is very flat and even. To form this surface, and to make it suitable for bearing a railway track, it would have been necessary to lay down track ballast. This is material that is intended to stop the wooden sleepers on which the metal track is supported from moving around. Angular pieces of broken-up stones made good track ballast; the jagged edges would tend to interlock and reduce movement; rounded pebbles, in contrast, would not be effective.

Clinker was also sometimes used as track ballast; it was not the best material, but it was cheap (this ballast also includes some dateable artefacts in the form of whole bricks, which are likewise eroding, with the clinker, from the embankment; as already noted, those that can be dated by their stamps turn out to have been made in the late nineteenth century).

Therefore, although the material did not originate here, it nevertheless does reveal something about the human use of Dalquhurn Point in the past: although I had already been aware of the former existence of a Cordale Branch Line nearby, it was the presence of clinker here that caused me to re-examine the OS maps, and so to notice the additional section of track that used to lead across Dalquhurn Point.

Although there is no map evidence any industry carried on at Dalquhurn Point itself (the Dalquhurn Dye Works were not located on the Point, but nearby), my impression of the area is that it has the feel of a former industrial site. The laying and the removal of the tracks would have disturbed the area to some extent, but all of that took place many decades ago. It may instead be the case that the clinker underlying the surface has had a subtle and enduring effect, determining which types of plant will now grow on Dalquhurn Point. Perhaps that influence on the flora is what I sense here. As it turns out, much of Dalquhurn Point is underlain by clinker: for example, it has been used to form a raised edge all along the Point's eastern end, and it can also be seen in material that is eroding from the Point's northern edge.

It is also worth bearing in mind that there must have been a reason for going to the trouble of preparing the ground here, and then installing a length of railway track along much of the length of Dalquhurn Point; it is reasonable to suppose that there was industrial activity here, even if only limited to something like sand extraction, or the storage of materials.

The Cordale Branch Line itself led along NS3977 : The Howgate, past Dalquhurn Works (now gone – see NS3977 : Construction site at Dalquhurn), and to the works (also now gone) on Cordale Point (see NS3978 : Footpath leading around Cordale Point). I wondered whether clinker might have been used as ballast elsewhere on that line.

An archaeological investigation of NS3977 : The former site of Dalquhurn House mentions clinker as being found there (see that item for the link). Dalquhurn House was near the line of the Cordale Branch, and I consider it likely that some of the material found there had been track ballast for the nearby line.

I wished to make my own investigation, although without doing any digging. One problem, though, is that the riverside route along which the Pug once ran (see the end-note) has been resurfaced many times, as has the Howgate. However, as the OS map shows, a burn runs alongside NS3977 : The Howgate. At the western end of the Howgate (there used to be a railway turntable for the Pug there), the burn flows particularly close to the path, which follows the line of the old railway track; it occurred to me that some lumps of clinker, if it had indeed been used in the trackbed there, might have eroded into the burn.

I looked there on the 23rd October (a few days after taking the present picture), and did indeed find pieces of clinker in the burn; it may have been track ballast. Another possibility is that it is part of the material that was used to infill the land just south of the burn following extensive excavations — Link — that were carried out there (c.1930s), probably for the purposes of sand extraction.
Dalquhurn Point

[dalˠˈhʌɾn] Large loops in the River Leven form two Points: Cordale Point — Link — to the north, and Dalquhurn Point. Unlike Cordale Point, Dalquhurn Point shows no buildings on OS maps of any period. However, there was a railway line ("Cordale Branch") for a small locomotive, "the Pug", that ran between the Howgate, the nearby Dalquhurn Works, and the Cordale Works; the 1914 OS map shows a branch of that line leading onto Dalquhurn Point; there must therefore have been some industrial activity on the point, even if only something like shallow quarrying or the storage of materials.

Clinker, in this case from the burning of coal, underlies much of the edge of the Point; its angular fragments could serve as a cheap form of track ballast. It is particularly noticeable on the south side of the Point, where it can be seen, in quantity, eroding out of the embankment, but it can also be found on the raised eastern tip of the Point, and in places along the north side, suggesting that it may also have been used to form the embankment, or as infill if the interior of the Point was quarried for sand, as happened in other places nearby (at the southern end of the Dalquhurn works, at Pillanflatt, and at Mains of Cardross Farm).

River Leven (West Dunbartonshire) :: NS3978

ITS COURSE:

The River Leven, in West Dunbartonshire, is just under 12 km (7.5 miles) in length¹. It flows from Loch Lomond, of which it is the only outlet, to the River Clyde. On the way, its meanders enclose two named points: Cordale Point and Dalquhurn Point (see Link and Link respectively). Among the settlements alongside the river are Balloch, Jamestown, Bonhill, Alexandria, Renton and Dumbarton.

Of rivers that are navigable or nearly so, the Leven, when in full flow, is one of Scotland's fastest².

THE NAME:

According to contemporary place-name scholarship³, the name of the River Leven is derived from a Celtic word for "elm" (modern Gaelic "leamhan"). The surrounding area was long known as the Lennox (earlier "Levenax", from a Gaelic word similar to "leamhnachd"), which is simply a derivative of the river's name, and is therefore from the same root⁴. The names Leven and Lennox are related to that of the Lemannonian Gulf⁵, situated somewhere nearby, that was listed by Ptolemy in his "Geography" (second century AD).

(At the time of writing, some web pages maintain that the name of the River Leven means "smooth stream"; however, that explanation is now very much out of date⁶.)

EARLS OF LENNOX:

During the 13th and 14th centuries, certain charters⁷ were made at Balloch by the Earls of Lennox. Traces of an old castle, presumably that of the earls, can be seen close to the source of the River Leven, in Balloch, in the form of a mound with a surrounding ditch; see Link for pictures and LinkExternal link at Canmore for archaeological details. As noted at the latter link, stones from the old castle are said to have been incorporated into the modern Balloch Castle (not a castle, but a 19th-century castellated house), though not in a noticeable way.

FISHING:

The River Leven receives early mention in connection with fishing; for example, a 1330 charter⁸ mentions the "yare of Linbren" (a yare is a kind of fish-trap) and its fishing rights. Angling still takes place on the river. The name "Linbren", of the old charter, survives: a part of the River is now called NS3980 : Linnbrane Hole. Anglers have names for many parts of the river: see the link just given for a partial list.

INDUSTRIES:

From the establishment of the first bleachfield beside the River Leven in 1715, works related to the textile industry would spring up along the length of the river. These developments are set out in some detail at LinkExternal link (on the Vale of Leven website). Though the numerous works are now gone, remnants of them can still be seen in the form of lades, by means of which water was diverted through these industrial sites. Old maps reveal the former presence of railway tracks on the west bank of the river, between Dalquhurn and the Cordale; a small locomotive nicknamed the Pug used to travel along them.

Shipbuilding would become very much associated with the lower reaches of the River Leven. Also worthy of note are the glassworks whose cones came to dominate Dumbarton's skyline from about 1777; the works stood in roughly the area now occupied by NS3975 : Dumbarton Health Centre.

BARRAGE, CANAL PLANS, AND CROSSINGS:

Varying depth aside, the river is not now navigable: a barrage, which was officially opened⁹ in 1971, crosses it at Balloch. In the 1840s, proposals¹⁰ for a canal running alongside the river came to nothing, as did similar ideas in c.2008.

As of 2021, the current and recent crossings of the river, from source to Clyde, are as follows: two road bridges at Balloch; the above-mentioned barrage, though only technically, given that its walkway is not accessible to the public; the Stuckie Bridge — Link —, originally a railway viaduct; the Bonhill Bridge — Link —, which is close to the site of its removed predecessor; the Black Bridge — Link —, removed in late 2014, leaving only its piers; Renton Bridge — Link —, closed for several weeks in late 2021 for repairs; the Blue Bridge — Link —, carrying the A82 over the river; a railway viaduct at Dalreoch; NS3975 : The Artizan Bridge, opened in 1974; and Dumbarton Bridge — Link —, built in 1765, but not opened to traffic until 1768 on account of problems caused by soft underlying material (these would later affect the Woodyard, a shipyard at what is now Posties Park).

See LinkExternal link (at the Vale of Leven website) for more information about all of the bridges.

FROZEN:

As of 2021, the River Leven has not frozen over in living memory. However, Dr I.M.M.Macphail, in his book "Lennox Lore" (1987), records a great frost during the winter of 1434-35, in the latter part of which "people could and did walk over the River Leven". John Mitchell cites this, and other examples¹¹ from 1607, 1795 and 1802, "when safe passage on foot across the frozen Leven is known to have been achieved".

PARISHES:

The River Leven formed the boundary of several parishes, including Cardross and Renton on the west, and Bonhill and Dumbarton on the east. Evidence that Cardross Parish anciently extended as far as the Leven can be seen in Levengrove Park, in the form of the remains — Link — of St Serf's, which was an early Cardross parish church.

ROBERT THE BRUCE:

Somewhere on the land lying on the west bank of the lower part of the Leven, between present-day Renton and Dalreoch, Robert the Bruce had a residence (a hunting lodge, in modern terms) where he spent his final years. The precise site is (as of 2021) unknown, and opinions on the likely location vary, but the residence may have been somewhere in the vicinity of the site that would later be known as Mains of Cardross; see Link for a more detailed discussion. The king is commemorated by a flagstaff (NS3875 : Bruce's Flagstaff) at Brucehill in Dumbarton (on the basis of an earlier belief that the king's dwelling was at adjacent Castlehill), and by a NS3975 : Plaque beside the ruins of St Serf's church (the church was mentioned above, in the section "Parishes").

ECOLOGY:

The lower reaches of the river feature what information panels on the western bank describe as a "valuable swamp habitat", often frequented by birds. According to those panels, the swamp on the western side is "dominated by Reed Canary-grass with Water Sedge, Bottle Sedge and Water Horsetail", while that on the other side, "heavily influenced by the tidal brackish conditions at this point", includes "Reedmace, Grey Club Rush, Reed Canary-grass and Sea Club Rush".

FLOODING, DEFENCES, AND THE LANDS OF MURROCH:

In the early burgh records of Dumbarton, there is a preoccupation with the "waterworks", a term then used to refer to defences built to protect the town of Dumbarton from flooding by the River Leven. One such work, the Bishop's Water-gang, was built in the early 16th century, but fell into disrepair later that century. As a result, an area, colloquially called "the Drowned Lands", and corresponding roughly to what is now the site of Broadmeadow Industrial Estate, would be flooded twice a day. Local author Tobias Smollett recalled that in his schooldays (in the 1730s) he could feel the presence of cobbles underfoot when paddling in the water, though it is likely that he and his schoolmates were imagining more to be underwater than was really the case. One effect was that the College Bow — Link — (a stone arch that is a remnant of the Collegiate Church) was left standing oddly isolated beside the tidal area (note that the Bow has been moved since then). The problems with flooding would not permanently be resolved there¹² until the 1850s, with the coming of the railway. See NS3975 : View to Broadmeadow Industrial Estate, where the former twice-daily flooding and some related uses of the land are described in more detail, with references.

Above what is now the Broadmeadow Industrial Estate, on the other side of a golf course, the Murroch Burn flows into the River Leven close to the eastern side of the Blue Bridge (a road bridge on the A82). Although the town at the lower end of the river is called Dumbarton, that name had originally referred specifically to Dumbarton Rock; much of the land on which the town would be built was formerly "the lands of Murroch"¹³. That name suggests a connection with the Gaelic "morbhach", meaning "land prone to sea-flooding", which would at least be appropriate: see Link (on the Murroch Burn) for further discussion.

Notes:

(1) "just under 12 km (7.5 miles)" — this is the length as measured along the course of the river. It differs from the distance quoted by some other online sources, but it was determined by the author of this shared description by means of measurements carried out on satellite imagery. The straight-line distance from end to end is about 8 km (5 miles).

(2) "At peak flow from the loch the Leven is understandably one of the fastest rivers in Scotland and provides a significant discharge of fresh water into the Inner Clyde Estuary": John Mitchell in "Loch Lomondside" (New Naturalist Series, 2001), page 12.

(3) See page 19 of W.J.Watson's "The Celtic Place-names of Scotland" (2004 edition; the book was originally published in 1926), and page 228 of W.F.H. Nicolaisen's "Scottish Place-names" (2001 edition).

(4) See page 119 of Watson's book cited in the previous note.

(5) The "Lemannonian Gulf" (Lemannonios Kolpos) can be seen listed, in Greek, as the first line of page 83 — LinkExternal link — of the Karl Müller edition (1883) of Ptolemy's "Geography". On the kinship of the form "Lemannonios" to the later names Leven and Lennox, see, again, page 119 of Watson, op. cit.

(6) The obsolete explanation of the name Leven, as meaning "smooth", appeared on page 45 of the first volume of Chalmers' "Caledonia" (1807), in a footnote to a list of names of "Rivers, Rivulets and Waters". Presumably the name was then thought to be related to the Gaelic word "lìomh". However, this is phonetically implausible; the early attested forms of the river's name are "Levyne" (1238) and similar spellings (the methodology of modern place-name studies places great emphasis on the importance of gathering the earliest available written forms of place-names and using those as the starting point).

Probably on the authority of Chalmers' book, page XIII of the preface of the Lennox Cartulary (1833) would present the same idea, stating that the name of the River Leven means "smooth stream".

A certain old poem by Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh, "Saor do leannán a Leamhain" — LinkExternal link —, thought to have been composed around 1200, gives a fanciful explanation for the name of the River Leven, basing it on a personal name.

(7) In the Lennox Cartulary (properly the "Cartularium Comitatus de Levenax", Maitland Club Edition, 1833), see, for example, the charter on page 13, dated 1238 "appud Bellach"; one on page 59, dated 1373 "apud Bellach"; and another on page 86, dated 1274, "apud Bellach". Towards the end of the 14th century, the earls would relocate to a new castle not far away, at the southern end of the isle of Inchmurrin in Loch Lomond; see LinkExternal link at Canmore for details.

(8) The 1330 charter mentioned here begins on page 17 of the Lennox Cartulary; the last few words of the charter give the year. Similar charters mentioning the yare of Linnbrane (whose spelling varies greatly) can be found in a list of Paisley charters: specifically, the "Registrum Monasterii de Passelet" (1832); for the relevant charters, see that book's own index of place-names and personal names.

(9) "The Loch Lomond Water Scheme, which involved controlling the natural discharge from the loch by means of a barrage across the River Leven, was officially opened on 29 June 1971": John Mitchell, "Loch Lomondside", page 92.

(10) Canal plans in the 1840s: at Link (which shows only a small part of the entire plan), the canal's proposed course appears as a brown line crossing the river. The plan is cited there in more detail.

(11) Pages 48-49 of John Mitchell's "Loch Lomondside" (2001). In the same account, he mentions that ice covered the Leven from bank to bank in February 1895, but that it was "not of sufficient thickness ... to tempt even the foolhardy".

(12) It should be added that the River Leven does, to this day, occasionally burst its banks in various places; for just a few examples, see NS3975 : Flooding at Riverside Lane / NS3981 : Flooded footpath beside the River Leven / NS3977 : Cycle path crossing flooded field. In the lower reaches of the Leven, this can occur when the river, in full flow, is met by an incoming high tide or a storm surge; by about 2019, car parks at Riverside Lane in Dumbarton had LED signs to warn of the possibility or likelihood of flooding at given times. However, as one of the example pictures illustrates, the river can also flood well above the point where it ceases to be tidal.

(13) Dr I.M.M. MacPhail, in his book "Dumbarton through the Centuries" (1972), discusses the foundation charter of the Burgh of Dumbarton, which was "sealed by Alexander II on July 8, 1222"; he goes on to observe that "in three other charters, in 1223, 1226 and 1230, Alexander gave to the newly-founded burgh the lands of Murroch (equivalent to almost the whole of the present parish of Dumbarton) and, in addition, extensive trading privileges".


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Geographical Context: Rivers, Streams, Drainage Railways Derelict, Disused River: Leven other tags: Clinker Click a tag, to view other nearby images.
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NS3977, 336 images   (more nearby 🔍)
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Lairich Rig   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Tuesday, 13 October, 2015   (more nearby)
Submitted
Saturday, 24 October, 2015
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NS 3939 7777 [10m precision]
WGS84: 55:57.9596N 4:34.4863W
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OSGB36: geotagged! NS 3939 7777
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EAST (about 90 degrees)
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