Geograph - photograph every grid square

This image shows a number of green mounds located beside NS4278 : The Spouts Burn.

The largest such mound is in the background; it contains an irregular depression that may be a badly-decayed lime-kiln ruin. This is discussed in NS4278 : Possible lime-kiln ruin at the Spouts Burn.

Visible in front of it are two much smaller mounds. These are low, but are 4 to 5 metres across. There are several pairs of these small mounds here; each mound faces a corresponding one on the other side of the burn.

I had been at this site before, but the lighting was poor on that occasion. After my second visit, on which the present photograph was taken, I submitted a report to WoSAS for this hitherto unrecorded site. The helpful contact there made the suggestion that the small mounds may be the remains of clamp kilns; that would seem to fit the circumstances of this site very well (for a more detailed description of the site, see NS4278 : Signs of former industry at the Spouts Burn).

Unlike the usual variety of lime-kiln to be found in this area (as ruins – see NS4278 : Lime-kiln ruin in upper Auchenreoch Glen for a nearby example), clamp kilns were temporary structures. The green grassy nature of the mounds suggests that they are richer in lime than the surrounding moorland.