2013
NS4377 : Black Craig
taken 13 years ago, 3 km from Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland
This is 1 of 4 images, with title Black Craig in this square

Black Craig
The long rock outcrop that can be seen on the far side of the valley (that of the Overtoun Burn) is a feature called Black Craig.
For much closer views, taken when close enough to touch the rock, see NS4377 : Black Craig, NS4377 : Black Craig, and NS4377 : Black Craig: detail.
A charter by James VI, from 1609, refers to "the Black Craigs", which, according to the context, were somewhere in this area; see NS4276 : Spardie Linn for the relevant passage.
It would be natural to associate that name with the feature shown in the present picture; it has been called "Black Craig" on OS maps from the first edition (c.1860) onwards(*). It is worth adding that some writers from around the same period instead identified the "Black Craigs" of the charter with NS4376 : The Long Crags, or Lang Craigs, located nearby; Donald MacLeod does so in his 1893 work "Dumbarton Ancient and Modern". However, the relevant part of the charter is describing a boundary along what it is now called the Overtoun Burn, and the Black Craigs are named between Spardie Lynn and the Black Lynn. The Black Craigs of the charter would therefore be on or beside the burn, like the feature shown in the present picture, and unlike the Lang Craigs.
NS4376 : The Long Crags themselves have been so called since at least the 1740s-50s, at which time they appeared on Roy's Military Survey of Scotland as "Long Craig".
[(*) In the early nineteenth century, if not earlier, the name "Black Craig" was being applied to the feature that is shown in the present picture: for confirmation of this, see Link and its remarks about a "Plan of Dumbarton Muir" (undated, but thought to be from early c19) on which the name appears. That plan was one of the authorities for many of the names that appear on early OS maps of this area.]
See NS4377 : Black Craig for an earlier picture of the same feature, and for further information. The outcrops are probably Spout of Ballagan sandstone, which, in this area, overlies lighter-coloured Ballagan Beds (NS4377 : Ballagan Beds in Overtoun Glen).
For much closer views, taken when close enough to touch the rock, see NS4377 : Black Craig, NS4377 : Black Craig, and NS4377 : Black Craig: detail.
A charter by James VI, from 1609, refers to "the Black Craigs", which, according to the context, were somewhere in this area; see NS4276 : Spardie Linn for the relevant passage.
It would be natural to associate that name with the feature shown in the present picture; it has been called "Black Craig" on OS maps from the first edition (c.1860) onwards(*). It is worth adding that some writers from around the same period instead identified the "Black Craigs" of the charter with NS4376 : The Long Crags, or Lang Craigs, located nearby; Donald MacLeod does so in his 1893 work "Dumbarton Ancient and Modern". However, the relevant part of the charter is describing a boundary along what it is now called the Overtoun Burn, and the Black Craigs are named between Spardie Lynn and the Black Lynn. The Black Craigs of the charter would therefore be on or beside the burn, like the feature shown in the present picture, and unlike the Lang Craigs.
NS4376 : The Long Crags themselves have been so called since at least the 1740s-50s, at which time they appeared on Roy's Military Survey of Scotland as "Long Craig".
[(*) In the early nineteenth century, if not earlier, the name "Black Craig" was being applied to the feature that is shown in the present picture: for confirmation of this, see Link and its remarks about a "Plan of Dumbarton Muir" (undated, but thought to be from early c19) on which the name appears. That plan was one of the authorities for many of the names that appear on early OS maps of this area.]
See NS4377 : Black Craig for an earlier picture of the same feature, and for further information. The outcrops are probably Spout of Ballagan sandstone, which, in this area, overlies lighter-coloured Ballagan Beds (NS4377 : Ballagan Beds in Overtoun Glen).
Black Craig
A prominent outcrop, about 150 metres in length, of dark reddish-grey sandstone, situated at the top of a steep slope on the northern side of the glen of the Overtoun Burn. The outcrop is named "Black Craig" on an early-nineteenth-century "Plan of Dumbarton Muir", which was one of the authorities for the names on the earliest OS maps of this area.
