EDC 14: Auld Wives' Lifts, Craigmaddie Muir

Grid reference: [NS 58233 76427]

Site type: Natural exposure

Site ownership: Not known

Current use: Private country

Field surveyor: Sarah Arkley & Luis Albornoz-Parra

Current geological designations: None

Date visited: 9th March 2009

Site map

(Figure 14) Auld Wives' Lifts Location Map

Summary description

Disused sandstone quarries, formerly used for millstones and for the construction of local dry-stone walls.

The sandstones are from a unit often referred to as the Craigmaddie Muir Sandstone within the lower part of the Lawmuir Formation. Where conglomerates are found interbedded with the sandstones the rocks have been placed within the underlying Douglas Muir Quartz-Conglomerate Member of the Lawmuir Formation.

Craigmaddie Muir is the type area for the Craigmaddie Muir Sandstone, displaying white, cross-bedded sandstones, 170–180m thick, with pebbly bands in places (Hall et al., 1998).The site contains a number of escarpments; some natural and some resulting from quarrying which show sedimentary features, including good examples of cross- and contorted convolute-bedding

The site is enhanced by a number of archaeological features including chambered tombs, cairns and cup-and-ring marks which have been recorded on Craigmaddie Muir, although these were not explored. The sandstone is also thought to have been used for making millstones and may be the origin for the millstone displayed in the wall near North Blochairn and the one outside Baldernock Mill.

The Auld Wives' Lift on Craigmaddie Muir is the main feature of the site, formed of three massive sandstone blocks, two forming the base and one perched on the top. There are a number of both natural and man-made theories as how the structure formed, which range from it representing glacially perched boulders, to a sandstone tor, to the local legend of three old women from Campsie, Strathblane and Baldernock, who having challenged each other as to who was the strongest, carried, in their aprons, the three stones and laid them in position. Whatever its origins, the stones have since been carved by man with names, dates, initials and faces, dating back at least two centuries.

The site also displays a number of Quaternary geological features, including an excellent example of a large ice-moulded drumlin, located to the SE of site & ice-carved striations (orientated approx ESE– WNW) on some smoothed sandstone surfaces. The views from here across to Glasgow are fantastic.

On the wildlife side Craigmaddie Muir forms an upland habitat.

EDC 14: Stratigraphy and rock types

Age: Pleistocene Formation: Wilderness Till Formation

Rock type: Glacial deposits: diamicton

Age: Lower Carboniferous Formation: Douglas Muir Quartz-Conglomerate Member, Lawmuir Formation

Rock type: Conglomerate

Age: Lower Carboniferous Formation: Lawmuir Formation

Rock type: Sedimentary Rock Cycles of the Strathclyde Group Type

Assessment of site value

Access and safety

Aspect/Description

Road access and parking Parking on verge of single track road by houses, space for 2–3 cars max. Private access, sign at gate to ask for permission to use track up to the moor from the house.

Safety of access Good farm track takes you up onto the moor, then walking is over rough moorland, around the Auld Wives' Lifts the ground is very boggy, wellingtons would be recommended

Safety of exposure All quarry faces appear stable

Permission to visit Permission given by farmer at the start of the track

Current condition Good clean faces exposed

Current conflicting activities

None

Restricting conditions None, although exposed if weather is poor

Nature of exposure Natural and Man-made exposures

Culture, heritage & economic

Historic, archaeological & literary associations Chambered cairn recorded nearby on the map, graffiti on the sandstone blocks date back centuries. Rating: 5.

Aesthetic landscape Open moorland with great view across to the Campsie Fells to the north and towards Glasgow to the south. Rating: 5.

History of earth sciences None known. Rating: 0.

Economic geology Former sandstone quarries, stone was probably used locally for millstones and construction of dry-stone walls. Rating: 3.

EDC 14: Geoscientific merit

EDC 14: Auld Wives' Lifts, Craigmaddie Muir. Geoscientific merit.

Total Geoscientific merit score 34

Current site value

Community The Auld Wives' Lifts is a feature of local curiosity. Rating: 7.

Education Variety of features here makes it a site, Bedrock, Quaternary and archaeological. Rating: 5.

Fragility and potential use of the site

Fragility None

Potential use Higher/Further Education, School, On-site Interpretation, Multidisciplinary. Rating: 5.

Geodiversity value

An excellent site displaying a variety of sedimentary and glacial features. However, the main value of this site probably lies with its associations with local industry (millstone quarrying), archaeology (chambered tombs) and folklore (Auld Wives Lifts).

Photographs

(Photo 71) View looking NW across the sandstone blocks which form the Auld Wives' Lifts, with the Strathblane Hills in the background.

(Photo 72) The Auld Wives' Lifts are composed of three large sandstone blocks that sit in a natural amphitheatre on Craigmaddie Muir. The origin of the feature is unclear; some people believe the blocks may have been positioned by man, whilst others think it is the result of nature. Looking NE.

(Photo 73) Looking SE across a quarried sandstone face.

(Photo 74) Looking NE at a sub-vertical cylindrical drill hole from the extraction of the sandstone.

(Photo 75) One of many thick-bedded sandstone units which has been worked in the area. It is thought that the stone was mainly used for building local dry-stone walls, dragged across the moors by horses pulling wooden sledges. Some records also suggest it was used for millstones. Looking N.

(Photo 76) Graffiti carved into the sandstone blocks making up the Auld Wives' Lifts. Names, initials, dates and pictures can be seen dating back at least two centuries, although it is thought that some of the carvings date from much earlier. Looking NW.

(Photo 77) Laminations at an angle to the main layering within a sedimentary rock is known as cross- bedding. The lowermost unit of sandstone in the photograph shows an example of this sedimentary structure, which results from the action of the river currents which carried and then deposited the sand grains millions of years ago.

(Photo 78) Part of the sandstone escarpment which surrounds the Auld Wives Lifts. The rock face is one of the few in the area which appears to be naturally weathered, without any signs of having been worked. Looking NW.

(Photo 79) Above and behind the main rock escarpment, sandstone is exposed at the surface in a number of places across Craigmaddie Muir. Several of these surfaces have been smoothed and display abundant parallel scratches/grooves known as glacial striae. These were formed by boulders trapped in the bottom of a glacier which were dragged across the landscape as the ice sheet advanced forwards. The orientation of the striations can therefore be used to indicate the direction of the ice flow. On Craigmaddie Muir glacial ice moved from the NW to the SE.

(Photo 80) Panorama from the sandstone escarpments close to the Auld Wives' Lifts. The cultivated fields are located on an elongated ridge called a drumlin, sculpted by ice which advanced towards the SE. There is also a smaller 'parasitic' ridge along the near (northern) side of the drumlin. Drumlins vary in size; this example is approximately 700m by 300m.

Bibliography