Bridge of Allan

EVERY UK TOWN AND VILLAGE, JUST TYPE IN WHERE YOU WANT TO GO!

Geograph Local Images

Greg Morss © "NS7896 : Netherton Farm and Lochearnhead hills"

Andrew Smith © "NS7896 : Island in Allan Water"

Andrew Smith © "NS7896 : River Forth"

Andrew Smith © "NS7895 : River Forth"

Richard Webb © "NS7996 : Bridge of Allan"

Greg Morss © "NS7895 : Frozen River Forth"

Peter Gordon © "NS7997 : Nineveh Fountain"

Andrew Smith © "NS7796 : Farmland, Lecropt"

Peter Gordon © "NS7997 : Sunset over Nineveh"

(See 15 MORE Local Images)

Bridge of Allan

TitleBridge of Allan

CountyCentral

CoordinatesLat : 56.15 Lon : -3.95

Adwords

Description Incorrect Description? Tell Us!Bridge of Allan is a town in Stirling council area in Scotland, just north of the city of Stirling. It was formerly administered by Stirlingshire and Central Regional Council.

It lies on the Allan Water, a left-hand tributary of the River Forth, built largely on the well-wooded slopes of Westerton and Airthrey Hill, sheltered by the Ochil Hills from the north and east winds.

The local people of the area, during the Iron Age, were known as the Maeatae and it was they who constructed a powerful hillfort nearby. The early village consisted of seven small clachans; Bridge End, Kierfield, Old Lecropt, Pathfoot, Logie, Corntown and the Milne of Airthrey. The villages were very separate and the villagers lived in the small world of their own communities.

The site occupied by modern Bridge of Allan, stretches from the clachan of Logie across the Allan Water to the University of Stirling. It was first mentioned in a charter granted by King David I. The charter was written in connection with a dispute between the nuns of North Berwick and the monks at Dunfermline Abbey over the tithes of Airthrey and Corntown. It is undated, but had been granted by 1146.

A hog's back, narrow, stone bridge was built to replace the old ford across the River Allan, in 1520. It rose sharply from the riverbank and dipped steeply at the other side. Soon after a few cottages began to appear around the ends of the bridge and an embryonic Bridge of Allan slowly formed. In the woods above the bridge a mine opened. This was worked from around 1550, and quantities of copper, silver and gold were extracted.

By the middle of the seventeenth century the Airthrey Estate had passed to relatives of the Marquess of Montrose, the Grahams. James Graham rose for the king during the English civil war, and in 1645, as the army of the Duke of Argyll passed through the Airthrey estate on its way to the battle of Kilsyth, they burned down the manor house.

The Jacobites were in Bridge of Allan in 1745, where three hundred highlanders set up a roadblock on the bridge and charged a toll for its passage.

Major Alexander Henderson, the Laird of Westerton, drew up plans of how he wanted the village to be laid out in 1850. The plan envisaged spacious streets with pleasure grounds in the woods. He also erected a fountain in Market Street. It was at this time that many handsome stone villas were built on wide thoroughfares, with practically every second house becoming a lodging house as Bridge of Allan became a renowned spa town. Among the visitors was Robert Louis Stevenson, who visited annually during his youth.

Sadly, in recent years, one of the town's former civic amenities, the Museum Hall, has been allowed to fall into disuse and considerable disrepair.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bridge of Allan"

Location Map

Local Tourist Attractions
Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can't connect to MySQL server on 'theleisureguide.co.uk' (4) in /home/fhlinux168/p/places2b.co.uk/user/htdocs/lib/db.class.php on line 20

Warning: mysql_select_db(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/fhlinux168/p/places2b.co.uk/user/htdocs/lib/db.class.php on line 22

Local Golf Courses
Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can't connect to MySQL server on 'geogolfcourse.co.uk' (4) in /home/fhlinux168/p/places2b.co.uk/user/htdocs/lib/db.class.php on line 20

Warning: mysql_select_db(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/fhlinux168/p/places2b.co.uk/user/htdocs/lib/db.class.php on line 22

GeoURLFind Webpages Geotagged to the location around Bridge of Allan

Adwords

Write a Review

Add to My Favorite

Refer it to Friend

Report Broken Link