NS3678 : Former site of rifle range's targets
taken 11 years ago, near to Cardross, Argyll And Bute, Scotland
The present picture is a view in the direction of firing. The steep slope behind provided an adequate natural stop-butt (backstop), though the job of those employed as markers, working at this end of the range, would still not have been without risk.
At the top of this slope was NS3679 : The former Fairy Knowe Quarry (later called NS3678 : Carman Quarry); the slopes of the Knowe, though they have largely been quarried away since then, would also have served to stop stray shots that went well above the targets.
For a view in the opposite direction over the location of the targets, see NS3678 : View over former site of rifle range's targets, which is a view along the length of the range, in the direction from which firing would have come. That item comments on the likely reason why the ground remains largely bare here, and it also contains several links to related items.
Clicking on the end-note title will likewise show related pictures.
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.
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- Grid Square
- NS3678, 137 images (more nearby 🔍)
- Photographer
- Lairich Rig (more nearby)
- Date Taken
- Wednesday, 10 June, 2015 (more nearby)
- Submitted
- Saturday, 20 June, 2015
- Subject Location
-
OSGB36:
NS 3660 7894
[10m precision]
WGS84: 55:58.5332N 4:37.2078W - Camera Location
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OSGB36:
NS 3660 7894
- View Direction
- Northeast (about 45 degrees)
