This is what remains of the southern wall of an old cattle enclosure near the foot of Carman Hill; it was used as the site of a cattle fair in the late nineteenth century, and it lies at the end of a drove road.

In fact, it was the site of the last remnants of the Dumbarton Muir Tryst. The following paragraph gives a summary of the tryst's various locations, and is based on John Mitchell's booklet "The Shielings and Drove Ways of Loch Lomondside" (2000), augmented by additions and corrections provided in the same author's articles "The Great Dumbarton Muir Trust" [in "Scottish Local History", issue 61 (2004)] and "The Legacy of the Highland Drovers" [in issue 76 (2009)]. I have deliberately given only a bare outline of the information here; see the original sources, just cited, for the full details:

The Dumbarton Muir Tryst began in 1762 (quite independently of the town's Lammas Cattle Fair, which was held in the Townhead area of Dumbarton, but later moved to the Broadmeadow). The Dumbarton Muir Tryst was, to begin with, held where two drove roads met, at a point between 912926 and the Hill of Standing Stones (see 1009890), but it soon moved to Nobleston Muir (NS4280). According to John Agnew's "The Story of the Vale of Leven", it then moved to the head of the Blairvault Burn (NS4281). Its final site was on Carman Muir, at the site shown in the present photograph; there, the fair faded away in the last decade of the nineteenth century.

For the drove road leading here, see: 914922.

Carman Reservoir is visible in the background.

Previous: 1043828.