Geograph - photograph every grid square

My thanks to fellow contributor Stan Campbell — Link — who told me a few years ago that this is called Dick's Pond (See NS3777 : Dick's Pond for a view from a little further away), while another one, 700 metres to the northwest, is called NS3678 : The Dookers.

On the day I took the present picture, someone mentioned "Dick's Farm", a colloquial name for nearby Kipperoch Farm (see the map); like the name of the pond, it refers to the surname of the family(*) who farm, or farmed, at Kipperoch.

[(*) I believe the family also had a connection with High Muirhouses Farm near Hamilton; at the time of writing, the ruins of High Muirhouses can be seen at NS68265333: NS6853 : Ruin Near Muttonhole Road.]

Some of the other nearby farms are better known locally by names other than those that appear on the map: for example, Dalmoak Farm is Young's Farm, while Upper Dalquhurn Farm is MacLachlan's Farm.

The pond itself is shown as a "dam" on the 1897 and 1914 revisions of the OS map; it was not present when the first-edition OS map was surveyed in 1860. Another NS3778 : Pool in a field, not far away, is, unlike the other two, not a former dam; it is much more recent than either of them, and is simply a quirk of drainage.

The dam has lost its original neat outline, but the embankment was here on the western side, running SSW—NNE (the present picture was taken from its southern end). The boulder in the foreground of the view from further away, NS3777 : Dick's Pond, is at the southern end of the embankment.