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West Burn Culvert [The Range/B&M] Inlet

W of The Range, West Shaw St, Greenock, Renfrewshire.

Inlet to culverted section of the West Burn. Canalized section of original stream bed 2-3 m wide with masonry walls to 1.5 m high capped with arched brick vaulting. Running under the carparks and buildings of The Range and B&M retail warehouses and West Shaw Street to join a new 2 m square concrete section below the B&M carpark, W of the Green Oak public house.

We moved onto Greenock Darkie. This thing sits elevated, 5 metres above a recently defunct Homebase Carpark (which was how we eventually got up to it, by scrabbling up some pretty fucking steep slopes), butted against a row of old houses, with this crazy arse Lade Bridge, crossing West Greenock [[sic. Greenock West] Station. The drain [Greenock West Station to Inverkip Road/Branchelston Mill] seen in the u/s of this next second pic [see link] we explored, in it had a few interesting features, but the 3ft high stoop sections after them, killed off my desire to turn back for photos as I'd originally planned. The Lade Bridge was fun to finally get down to, as even though its elevated above the railway and the Homebase, the road it emerges from beneath is another four metres up. Theres then a good bit of nettlebashing to reach the sluice that drops the burn down into the tunnel. I had hoped this would be within the tunnel, but there you go ... At one time the elevated area mightve been publically accessable. Theres remnants of a small bridge over the infall ... Once inside, it was a reasonably varied affair, if almost entirely flat, which was a shame, cos i'd hoped there might be falls or stairs within its larger confines. It carried on a good 900m, through a variety of arched tunnels, before reaching a larger chamber ... After the chamber, it hunkerd down to become a boring new box section... Before shrinking to a fucking 3ft archway near the Clyde. This goes well in line with the habit of Scottish drains having shrunken outfalls, so we turned back, stopping to look at some of the calcium formations. [28dayslater]

Alternative Names: The Greenock Darkie

Notes: The Greenock Darkie (named using an Australian convention of giving the Town name and Darkie 'because it is dark') [28dayslater]

Hydrographic Feeds: West Burn

Hydrographic Resurgences: West Burn