a dam sight (a zine) 1
balgray: a dam sight p. 4 (april 2025) acknowledgements p. 62 postscript p. 65 (july 2025) 3
makes the fishing easier! 4
I have a famously bad memory, but I remember that day. It was a weekend, one of those wonderful primary school Saturdays with no homework and no bedtime, just the whole entire world at my grubby little fingertips – and my parents were insisting we go and see a dried-out hole in the ground. Let’s go up the Dams! they said. They’ve drained it! I couldn’t think of anything worse. 5
an incomprehensibly huge body of water, where dogs went to walk, men went to fish, and teens went to drink. Despite the name, I understood it to be the singular Balgray Reservoir, which lurks ominously at the top of my hometown. In actual fact, the moniker derives from ‘Dams to Darnley’, the name given to the complex family of waterways and walking routes that link Barrhead and Darnley. It makes for an extremely pleasant walk if you’ve got a good few hours to spare, but at that age it felt like summiting Nevis. I’d tried the walk once before with my family but I threw in the towel halfway around Balgray, barely a fraction into the complete route. I saw a fuzzy caterpillar though, which, while nice, was not quite enough to entice me back. 6
they said. They’ve drained the whole thing! Jesus might as well have come down and turned it all to wine. The whole house was buzzing; even the sun was out and about, which meant it was a very special day indeed. 7
This is a once in a lifetime event, they said. You don’t want to miss it. 8
up the main road, past the school, and along by the big green fields. The resident sheep looked perfectly content. They hadn’t seen the empty reservoir and they didn’t seem to mind. 9
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