The present image is one of three I took on this occasion. Click on the end-note title for other views of the bunker and associated features. In the present view, the Clyde is in the background.
A
NS3776 : Bomb crater in Perrays Wood and others nearby that have since been ploughed out are perhaps a result of the decoy fire associated with this bunker. There are also some pits closer to the decoy fire site itself that I have interpreted as craters:
NS3678 : Bomb crater. Note that there are also several small quarries in that area, which was once associated with cornstone workings:
NS3678 : Former cornstone workings on Carman Muir.
Anyone looking for craters in the area might find it useful to know that there are many small round pits, and larger irregular ones, on Carman Muir; these, though, are relics of limestone quarrying: see
Link for details and for a link to a map (an annotated satellite image) I made in this connection. As that map shows, the pits (the smaller round ones are test pits) all lie on the lines of the limestone outcrops, in groups oriented in the same direction; they are clearly not bomb craters.
Some months before taking the present picture, I had spoken to someone in Dumbarton Library about the Cardross Blitz, and I had been offered several theories on why Cardross, not an obvious target, was hit. One was that the bunkers of
NS3578 : Cardross Golf Course had appeared, by means of the concave-vs-convex optical illusion, to be mounds rather than hollows, and so had been mistaken for oil tanks. Another was that Ardmore Point with its hill had been mistaken for Dumbarton Rock, and hence Cardross for Dumbarton.
At the time of writing, an article —
Link — at the Helensburgh Advertiser sets out these (or very similar) ideas, and others; it also has additional information on the Kipperoch decoy and its results.
[A note on taking these pictures: I am naturally stealthy, but in this case, with the site of interest only 100 metres from dwellings, I made the effort to make myself visible to the farmer, who was outdoors, and to ask before visiting and photographing the bunker; simple courtesy is a good enough reason, but it also spares the residents from needless worry or alarm.]