Stockie Muir

NS48SE 20 from 4546 8305 to 4999 8164

see also NS 58SW 11

Local information (Mr Dickie, Auchineden Farm) was obtained that some, at any rate, of the West Highland droves heading to Falkirk used to make their way by Cameron Muir, a ford on the Carnock Burn, Stockie Muir, and the farm of Ledlewan, thereafter crossing the Blane Water by two fords, respectively near Croy and Ledlewan. Traces of a drove road were accordingly searched for on this line.

The Carnock Water is difficult to cross owing to the depth and generally precipitous character of the Finnch Glen, through which it runs. There is, however, a practicable crossing-place for droves at a point about 500 yards (direct measurement) downstream from the county boundary (NS 472 822), and the left bank here shows several hollow tracks descending towards the ford. The right bank, which was bracken-covered, could not be reached on the date of visiting to the flooded condition of the stream. With these hollow tracks should perhaps be associated a belt of comb-like marks in the herbage which were observed for some 400 yards away to the NW (NS c.470 825), and which suggest the passage of animals from some ford on the Cameron Burn, probably at Wester Cameron (distinct from the route described under NS48SE 15).

Of the several small headwater streamlets of the Dualt Burn, which join up near and above the point where the parish boundary-wall strikes off from the burn's course, only two are marked on the 6-inch map - one running N from the flank of Auchineden Hill and the other ESE from the point marked 'Rises' on Stockie Muir. These two coalesce at NS 495 816, and it clear that the latter, a mere ditch, has adopted the line of a hollow roadway up to 20ft wide, scarped along its uphill side and having a flattish bottom. The scarping is very plain, and is up to 3ft high in places. Higher up on the moor the line of the road is marked out by distinctive light-coloured herbage, and at the skyline it seems to be aligned more or less on the ford on the Carnock Burn (NS 472 822), about a mile away to the W. Traces of the road are lost where the glen of the Dualt Burn begins to deepen and steepen, slightly above its junction with the boundary wall.

RCAHMS 1963, visited 3 July 1958