Geograph - photograph every grid square

The second-edition OS map (revised c.1897) shows a rifle range here, with flagstaff and targets at the NE end; to the SW, small features are labelled "200", "500", and "600" (distance in yards from the targets). The range is not recorded on the first-edition map (surveyed 1860), nor on the revision of c.1914. Though the area is now damp and tick-infested, its topography was very suitable for its former use: it is low, flat, and level, and surrounded by (contrastingly uneven) higher ground on all sides, which would safely contain all but the wildest of stray shots.

According to page 84 of "Cardross: the village in days gone by" (Arthur F Jones, 1985), the 7th (Cardross) Company of the Dumbarton Volunteer Rifles came into being late in 1859, and, for their shooting competitions, "at first a field at Carman was used", before ground was secured near the shore at Cardross in 1864. It is not clear whether the "field at Carman" is the one shown here.