Bridge of Allan

Bridge of Allan is a town in Stirling, Scotland.

The local people of the area, during the Iron Age, were known as the Maeatae and it was they, who constructed a powerful hillfort on the top of Abbey Craig, (now the site of the Wallace Monument).

The site occupied by modern Bridge of Allan, stretching from the village of Logie to the waters of the river Allan, was known as the Airthrey Estate. 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 Marquis of Montrose, the Grahams. James Graham rose for the king during the civil war, and in 1645 as the army of the Duke of Argyle passed through the Airthrey estate on its way to the battle of Kilsyth, they burned down the manor house.

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 live in the small world of their own communities.

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.

The first Saturday in August is traditionally the date for the Strathallan Games. Founded 1852 by Major Henderson, the games attract hundreds of athletes, pipe bands, and highland dancers.