Geograph - photograph every grid square

See NS4582 : Remains of Aridow: the main building for a summary of the various individual features to be seen at this site. The present article concentrates, instead, on what can be seen from a distance, and on the evidence for this farmstead on early maps.

With reference to the present photograph, the remains of the main building of the farmstead are located just right of centre, at the far end of the foreground ridge (the remains themselves cannot be seen in this photograph; instead, see the link in the previous paragraph). On the left, in the middle distance, traces of an old enclosure appear as an area filled with pale tufts of grass. The ridge visible in the foreground of this photo runs due south for about 70 metres, before turning WSW to head towards the wooded slopes above the Gallangad Burn; see NS4582 : Remains of Aridow: field dyke.

None of these features is indicated on the first-edition OS map, surveyed c.1860; the traces on the ground must, even then, have been rather indistinct. However, I was able to find some evidence of this farmstead on an earlier map: Roy's Military Survey of Scotland (1747-1755) shows several farmsteads that can be identified with modern farms that stand on or near the same locations. That map shows, marked in the usual red ink, Culalice (modern Collalis), West Cameron (Wester Cameron), Knockingour (see below, in the 2020 update), Culingad (Gallangad Farm), and Third of Blairwhomry (now Merkins Farm, restoring a much earlier name, "Merknisk", that is shown on the Pont/Blaeu map, surveyed in the 1580s-90s).

In that area, Roy's map also shows an unnamed farmstead (likewise marked in red ink), corresponding to the location shown in my photograph. That identification is made certain by the fact that his map indicates the topography of the land, and the farmstead is shown as being placed on the NW slope of an elevated area, which is easily identified with the part of Gallangad Muir on which the nearby trig point now stands. The fact that the farmstead is unnamed on Roy's map may indicate that, even as early as the mid-eighteenth century, it had already been abandoned for some time.

[In 2020, while idly revisiting my pictures of this site, I decided to look for relevant estate plans, and I came across one that allowed me to put a name to this long-gone farmstead; it was called Aridow: see the end-note for the details. I had previously made a tentative connection with the "Aridu" shown on the Charles Ross map, but the estate plan confirmed the connection. Not far to the north (as mentioned in the end-note), the same estate plan shows another lost farmstead; that one was called Knockour (or Knocknagour, depending on the map), and some of its enclosures are still visible on the ground. If using Google Earth, it may be helpful to use the "Historical Imagery" function; the satellite imagery from 1/28/2005 was lit by a particularly low sun, which makes many otherwise inconspicuous features, such as the enclosures of the two vanished farmsteads, much more visible.]

[A further example of a long-gone farmstead that can be named with the help of old estate plans is Haughton of Gartlea, whose location still be discerned on satellite imagery at NS44798425; an unnamed and unroofed structure is marked there on the first-edition OS map of 1859; it is not marked at all on later OS maps.]

About 120 metres to the south of the site of the farmstead of Aridow, I happened across a large oval pit, which was perhaps associated with the farmstead; it appears to have been the site of limestone quarrying. It is shown in NS4582 : Oval pit near old farmstead and NS4582 : Oval pit near old farmstead.

The background of the photograph shows Loch Lomond to the left, with Ben Lomond (NN3602) as the most prominent skyline peak, just left of centre. The green hill in front of it is NS4385 : The Dumpling (Duncryne Hill). Right of centre, the ridge of Conic Hill (NS4292) can be seen in front of Beinn Bhreac (NS4296). Near the right-hand edge of the photo, the low ridge-like hill Gualann (NS4594) is directly behind a clump of trees.