Geograph - photograph every grid square

Black Lair

The dark area on the left looks like a collection of boulders, but is a single large mass of rock called Black Lair. For a different view, see NS3974 : Black Lair. The name "Black Lair" was shown on the first-edition OS map, which was surveyed in 1860, and is included on the present-day 1:25000 scale map.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, there were proposals to remove this mass of rock; in relation to this, some surveying and test boring was carried out in the area, but it is clear that nothing further came of these plans (in fact, this was not the first occasion on which test bores had been made in the vicinity of Black Lair: similar work took place here a couple of decades earlier, c.1883, perhaps with the same goal in mind).

A few miles away, there are some similarly-named features at Ardmore Point, namely, the Big Lair and Little Lair (their names are sometimes given with the spelling "Layer"): NS3178 : Remains of a quay.

In the background of the present photograph, on the left, is NS3974 : The shoreline at Sandpoint. Part of Dumbarton Rock can be seen on the right, with a huge fallen boulder at its base: NS3974 : Fallen boulder beside Dumbarton Rock. Between Dumbarton Rock and Black Lair, the River Leven flows towards the right, into the River Clyde.