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This is the "fish yair" (a fish-trap in the form of a barrier) marked on the 1:25000 map, as seen from a point about halfway along its length. The southern end of the yair is seen here as a long sweeping arc reaching out into the River Clyde.

There were six yairs in total on the shore between Ardoch and Craigendoran, all of whose remains are visible to some extent. This one, Ardoch Yair, is the first of them. The next one is NS3377 : Geilston Yair (readers can use the link in the end-note to navigate to the other five yairs in sequence).

The northern half, as seen from the same point, is shown here: NS3576 : Ardoch Yair. There also happened to be a kind of receptacle at this point along its course: NS3576 : Receptacle in Ardoch Yair. The tip of the yair, as seen from much further out on the beach, is shown here: NS3575 : The shore near Ardoch.

Since the fishing yair is a local phenomenon, it is worth explaining. The following is from the Old Statistical Account (1796) for Cardross Parish: "The Zair or Yair fishings, so productive in this parish, seem to be almost peculiar to it. A yare is built of stones gathered from the tide water-mark, about 4 feet in height, and of considerable length, and stretches out into the river in the form of a crescent, or of three sides of a square; but to give it a probability of succeeding, it must proceed from a point of land, so as to include a bay. ... In spring tides, the water retiring quickly, great quantities of fish, particularly herrings, are occasionally taken within these inclosures; and salmon, in small quantities, during the spring and summer months. ... The mode of securing what fish may be in the yares, is with a hand-net".

[The omitted sections describe the ideal distance from shore of a yare/yair; the fishing rights, which were granted by charters over 500 years earlier; and the proportion of fish allotted to the proprietor, to tenants of adjoining land, and to strangers; they also record that the best of the several yairs on the shore were those of Mr Dennistoun of Colgrain (on whom, see NS3181 : Dennistoun Crescent), and Mr Noble of Noble-Farm. On the "Zair/Yair" alternation in the report: in Middle Scots, the sound of consonantal "y" was written with the letter yogh (ȝ), whose printed forms were sometimes indistinguishable from those of the much less frequently used letter "z". From the seventeenth century, the sound was written using the more familiar letter "y" instead.]

Half a century later, The New Statistical Account (1845) relates that "of the yairs mentioned in the former Statistical Account of this parish, those of Ardmore and Colgrain are kept up, but they are no longer of any value beyond the casual supply of a few salmon or trouts".

David Murray, whose book "Old Cardross" (1880) lists all six yairs to be found on the shore, also mentions "Castle Folly or Clyde Castle – An old house at one time stood at the head of Ardoch Bay, which was built or used for the purpose of receiving and curing the proprietors' share of the herrings taken at Ardoch Yair, and was called the Yair House. It was afterwards altered and used by Mr W.C.C.Graham, of Gartmore, as a summer house, and called Clyde Castle. Mr Robert Mackenzie occupied it for one or two seasons prior to 1789. Latterly a house of the same name stood a little to the east of the railway station and was removed when the railway was formed".

[Notes: (1) "when the railway was formed": the Parliamentary Bill for the railway line that passes through Cardross was given royal assent in 1855, and the line was officially opened in 1858. (2) "W.C.C.Graham": William Cunninghame Cunninghame-Graham, eldest son of Robert Graham (1735-97) of Gartmore (NS5297). Among the later Grahams of Gartmore was Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936), great-great-grandson of the aforementioned Robert; see NS3875 : Cunninghame Graham Memorial Park.]