Roy Sexton will be the speaker at the AGM of Friends of the Kings Park, Stirling, in the Smith Museum on Wednesday 7th Nov at 7pm.

Roy's talk will compare the findings of a survey this summer with those from a century ago, when results were published in the Transactions of the Stirling Natural History and Archaeological Society.

Get fuller details here.

We have had an enquiry about the route of the 'drove road' from Stirling, via Fallin to Edinburgh from the Fallin Community Council.

A few things to be clear about first. Fallin was really just a farm or two until quite recent times - its growth as a pit village was long after the period when cattle droving came to an end. So, there was no 'road through the village'.

Secondly,do not assume that all roads in Scotland before the railways were drove roads! Droves might use almost any road (they would try to avoid tolls and needed to have pasture for their stock along the way) but droves might only have been a small part of the traffic, even on some roads that they did use.

The standard book is A R B Haldane, The Drove Roads of Scotland, and there are many editions; get a copy in the library. As I expected, the main map suggests that the major route, from Stiring southwards, was via Larbert and Falkirk, rather than via Fallin. Major routes tended to avoid the carse lands, where there were few stones to make the road surface and where mud was a major problem. So, the main route the droves and the other traffic followed was on the higher ground.

But roads certainly went from Stirling, via Fallin to Airth etc. The best way to find their routes (at least from the seventeenth century onward) is to look at the maps. Of course, old maps were not as precise as modern ones, they were not usually route maps at all. But themaps are easily found online via the website of the National Library of Scotland and (always a big bonus) access is FREE!


So, go to http://maps.nls.uk/counties/index.html and choose 'Stirlingshire'; the earliest ones do not show roads at all. But, as you move forward, you can form a picture. The road will, more or less follow the present one but not in every detail.

for more modern, Ordnance Survey maps go to http://maps.nls.uk/os/index.html; the maps at six inches to the mile will be adequate for most purposes but they go up to 25 inches to the mile.

It would also be worth visiting Stirling Council Archives who have some estate maps of the area and will help you to find what you need and help you to understand what you are seeing.


It is always worth thinking about the bridges, as well as the roads. There was certainly a bridge over the Bannock Burn at Millhall in the seventeenth century. And somewhere in the vicinity of Fallin was Bennie's Bridge - I would love to know exactly where that was!


If you are interested in roads in general, you could read John G Harrison,2005, ‘Improving the roads and bridges of the Stirling area c 1660-1706’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland vol. 135, pp. 287-307.

You should find a copy of that in Stirling Central Library Reference Section, though that is a technical historical research paper.


Do let us know how you get on via the Comments below this post and if you still have questions, do get in touch again.

Finally, if anyone has done any actual research on the carseland routes east from Stirling, do let us  know!

Alan Clater, one of our members, is eager to know where (and when) this picture was taken. He thinks it is around 1910 but has tried Trade Directories for Stirling for that period, without success. He had been told it might be on St Mary's Wynd but his own hunch is that it is the corner of Bank Street and Spittal Street, where the gardens are now.


I am pretty sure he is right as the slope is just right for that areThe site was still built on in 1953 (on the OS 25 inch map).

On the hunch that that is the right site, what about the Valuation Rolls, which you can access for free in Stirling Council Archives?

Even easier, if anyone remembers this shop, do please get in touch either by email (enquire@stirling-lhs.org) or by posting a comment in the space below.

We a have had an enquiry from Hayley Cross who is conducting historical research into consumer experiences in twentieth-century Scotland.

Hayley writes;

My name is Hayley Cross and I am History PhD student at the University of Glasgow. I am conducting a project on consumer experiences (such as buying goods, credit and fashion) in Scotland over the course of the twentieth century. I am looking to carry out a number of informal interviews with men and women born in Scotland between 1915 and 1965 and I would value a contribution from the people of the Stirling region.

If you would like to learn more about my project, or wish to take part, then please contact me using the details provided in the attached information. Please DO NOT respond via the website.

We have had an enquiry from Peter Klein about this wonderful photograph which he would like to know more about. He writes;

I know that the current Highland Games at Callander date back no further than 25 years or so, but I'm enquiring whether there were historically far earlier games held there, particularly during the mid-19th century? I have attached some scans of an old albumen photograph which, judging from the paper and materials, and the costume of the people shown in it, would appear to date from around 1860 to '70.
I know little about its provenance, other than that on the back is written in pencil: "A. Donaldson, Callander, by Stirling", just possibly the name of the photographer, or perhaps someone who ordered the photograph and was a bystander at the occasion. Looking at it closely, there is a blur of activity on a raised stage, for the most part caused by the exposure being so long - perhaps two to three seconds or more. Only one figure stands relatively still, and there appears perhaps to be a performance of highland dancing. There is a grandstand behind, decorated with flags and greenery, and the local gentry sit out in the front row to watch the proceedings. Tents and stalls are scattered about, and there must be several hundred people in the picture.
I am wondering whether anyone locally might recognize this occasion from similar pictures taken at the time, or the location in which it might have been held - possibly the park or grounds of a big house. If you happen to know of anyone who is knowledgeable about similar local events and has a particular interest in them, I would be delighted too hear from them.

SLHS continues;

If you do recognise the scene (or, indeed, the photo itself) or have ideas about who A Donaldson' do get in touch; you can email us at enquire@stirling-lhs.org or post a comment below this blog entry.

More generally, when did Highland Games start in Callander? I have heard, recently, of some on Perthshire around 1820 (very early). My first thought on how to check further would be through the columns of the local press. But other thoughts would be very welcome - as would all offers of help.

Our new season is approaching, and launches with a talk on October 25th 2012 by
Craig Mair who will be talking about 'Stirling Royal Infirmary - the First Fifty Years'.

Craig, former teacher at Wallace High School, is justly well-known and the author of the recently-published book about the history of the infirmary, now replaced by the Forth Valley Royal at Larbert.

The meeting will be at the Smith Museum and starts at 7.30pm. All are welcome. Membership is only £10 (free for students and people under 18); we ask none members for a small contribution.

Find the rest of the programme on the front page of the site.

WE have had an enquiry from Claus Cartellieri from Germany who is researching the visit of Theodor Fontane, a German novelist and his friend, Bernhard Lepel, to Scotland in 1858.

The visit was described in Fontane’s book, Jenseit des Tweed, first published in German in 1860. There is an English translation ‘Beyond the Tweed – a tour of Scotland in 1858’. The most recent English version (Trans. Brian Battershaw) is an edition published by Libris, London in 1998 (National Library of Scotland Shelfmark H3.200.1453).

Fontane and his companion had previously stayed in Edinburgh. They arrived in Stirling by steam boat – perhaps the novelist saw this as more Romantic than the prosaic train, which would have been much faster and more convenient! On arrival he stayed at the Royal Hotel, and the enquiry is really about the hotel. On that, we can help!

On 29 April 1836 a notice in the Stirling Journal (p. 1) announced that Archibald Campbell, formerly a waiter at Mr Cameron’s Hotel in Bridge of Allan, was now to run the Royal Hotel in Stirling, though the present building might, in fact, be a little later than this date. Campbell then had a long career at the hotel and was nicknamed ‘The Royal’.  In 1841 Campbell (aged 31) and guests appear in the census return - as they will do in the later returns too!

One of Campbell’s early objectives was to benefit from tourists coming to visit the Trossachs and the southern Highlands, made so fashionable by the writings of Sir Walter Scott. The railway only arrived in Stirling in 1848 and did not run to Callander for some decades after that so Campbell seems almost to have provided what we might now call Package Holidays, collecting guests in Stirling and arranging their onward travel by coach.

This might be why Fontane and his companion stayed there. Campbell features in Wm. Drysdale’s Old Faces, Old Places etc (Second Series, 1899, p. 183-4) and there is information about the hotel in Stirling Central Library’s ‘Stirling Scrapbook’ (page 109a).

Another way of following up The Royal Hotel (and the other places where the visitors stayed) would be through the National Library of Scotland’s astonishing 694 Post Office Directories online at http://www.nls.uk/family-history/directories/post-office which we featured here some months ago.

One of those places was Johnston’s Hotel, Waterloo Place, Edinburgh. The development of Waterloo Place, as an eastward extension of Princes Street from the 1810s is discussed in ‘Regent Bridge and the opening up of Calton Hill, Edinburgh’ by Eric J Graham in Scottish Local History, Issue 81, August 2011, p. 29-35. Graham notes the concentration of hotels on Waterloo Place in its early days. Johnston’s is not mentioned so perhaps the hotel names changed, over time. For one of Graham’s excellent illustrations see http://www.ericgraham.co.uk/node/159

The visit is not featured in Robert Ritchie’s delightful booklet (also featured here some time ago) ‘A Mental Feast of Pure Delight’, an excellent collection of descriptions by visitors to Stirling. But I gather that Fontane’s journey from Edinburgh and visit to Stirling and area fill some 20 pages in Fontane’s book!

That looks like being a useful source for those interested in travel, visitors and the Stirling of the period. Does anyone want to look out the book and give us some more information? Does anyone have further information about Campbell’s Royal Hotel? Mr. Campbell himself retired in 1885 and the dinner in his honour was reported in the Stirling Journal, 11 June 1885.

I am posting images of the former Royal Hotel, familiar to local people at the corner of Barnton Street and Friars Street.
And of Archibald Campbell - the elderly gentleman in the centre - though this is not a very good image (it is from Drysdale).

And Mr Cartellieri has sent images of Fontane (looking every bit the Romantic writer) and of his friend Bernhardt Lepel. What an odd opportunity, to re-introduce people who last met 144 years ago! Mr Campbell, Herr Lepel
If we can fill this one out, we might also feature it on the ‘On this Day’ page?

Dorothy Wilson writes:
“The Inner Forth Valley Landscape Initiative are interested in obtaining proposals/projects from individuals and groups related to the heritage and history of the Inner Forth. I am interested in the history of steamship travel, transport and tourism on the Firth of Forth between Leith, Newhaven, Granton and Stirling, Alloa, Grangemouth, Boness etc during the 19thc and early 20thc. and wondered if any other members of SLHS would have an interest in this area of research and like to participate in a local history project on Dorothy has suggested this to the project organisers and hopes for support, if funds become available. If others are interested in participating, you can contact us via
enquire@stirling-lhs.org

For initial information about this newly-funded project see http://www.centralscotlandgreennetwork.org/Latest-News/inner-forth-landscape-initiative-receives-heritage-lottery-funding.html