Scotland > 1868, 1878 - Slater's (late Pigot & Co.'s) Royal national commercial directory and topography of Scotland > 1861

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DOLLAR, ALVA AND TILLICOULTRY,
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OLLAR is a parish and village— the latter an im-
proving little place h 9 miles from Clackmannan and
7 from Alloa; charmingly situated near the eastei n ex-
tremity, and at the base of the Ochil range of hills,
on the road from Kinross, to Stirling, 12 miles
from each of those towns. A great proportion of
the consequence this village now enjoys is to be
ascribed to the establishment and endowment of
an academy, by a Mr. M'Nabb, a native of the parish,
who having realized a Considerable fortune in London,
bequeathed a large sum to found an institution
in his native district, for the education of young-
persons. A very handsome edifice was consequently
erected in 1819, and masters selected to teach the
Latin, Greek, and Oriental languages, together with
French and other modern tongues, and mathematics,
natural philosophy, geography, English, drawing,
•writing and arithmetic: female teachers are also con-
nected with the institution. The building is au elegant
one, in the Grecian style, with a noble portico, having
some pleasant garden ground attached for the use of
the students, li accommodates about. 400 pupils, many
of whom are members of respectable families residing
in the neighbourhood others are boarders from differ-
ent parts of the kingdom, and the remainder are the
children of poor parents belonging to the parish who
as such, are entitled to free instruction and books, many
of the latter class after enjoying the advantages ot the
institution have risen to considerate distinction.
About five years ago an Act of Parliament was
obtained through the influence of the sheriff of the
county, constituting four permanent trustees, and
nine others who are qualified by the possession of
a certain amount of property in the county, and elected
every five years. Previous to the pa sing of this act
the parish minister and kirk session of Dollar were
vested with the trusteeship. From the period of the
establishment of this institution. Dollar has been fast
emancipating itself from the shades of obscuiity, and
many handsome villas now grace the village and its
vicinity ; while some well furnished shops and a res-
I pectable inn impait to it an appearance highly con-
trasted with the defects it presented previous to the
opening of the academy. At Doilarfield are extensive
and old established bleach works, the property ( f John
Haig, Esq. ; and in the village is a branch of the Cly-
desdale Banking Company. In the neighbourhood is
the remarkable ruin ot Castle Campbell, once the oc-
casional residence of the Arg\ll family, and which was
taken, in 1644, by the Marquis of Montrose. The
remains occupy the summit of a high and almost in-
sulated rock ; and in the hill itself is a frightful chasm
called the' Kemp's Score,' which still hears some
marks of a staircase. The situation of these relics of
former strength and grandeur is highly romantic and
interesting, and will amply r< pay the Strang, r for turn-
ing aside to contemplate both the ruins and the scenery.
Ab >ut four miles from Dollar, are to be seen the cel-
ebrated Rumbling biidge, and falls of Devron, which
are vi-ited by patties fiom all parts of the country. A
handsome church belonging to the establishment oc-
cupies an excellent position at the east end of the
village, and a commodious Free church has recently
^een erected at the west end by the zealous members
of that denomination. ,_ ,
Alva is a thriving viliaee, three miles north from
Alloa, two west, from Tillicoultry, and five west from
Dollar, charmingly situated at the foot of the Ochils,
whence issues a stream that turns several mills, and
forms, in its course through the romantic and interest-
ing glen of Alva, three beaut'nul cataracts. The largest
Of the falls issues from an aperture in the rock' above,
and tumbles from a height of forty feet in one unbro-
ken mass into a natui ally-formed basin below. This
parish belongs to Stirlingshire, although locally de-
tached from that county, and surrounded on all sides
by Clackmannan. It affords excellent pasture, is in
Borne places well cultivated, and the hills abound with
valuable ores, such as silver, copper, iron, and lead.
by some miners from Leadhills, discovered a very rich
vein of silver, in a romantic glen, about midway be-
tween Alva House, and the village. The precious
metal made its appearance in small threads, which,
upon being followed, led to a very lich mass of ore;
some of it was so rich, that fourteen ounces of ore
yielded twelve ounces of silver. So easily was the de-
posit of treasure reached that not more than £50 ster-
ling had been exp nded on it when the prize was found ;
and during a space of little more than three months, it
is said, that ore was obtained, from which Sir John
drew fiom £40.000 to £50,000 besides what the work-
men dishonestly appropriated to themselves. After
this mass was exhausted the ore became so scarce as
not to repay the expense of working, and hence the
enterprise was abandoned. The district also abounds
with coal, which is wrought to a great extent by the
Alloa Coal Company, and vast quantities are shipped to
distant parts. The manufacture of woollen goods,
consisting of fancy plaids, shawls, tartans, &c. is carried
on in the village and its neighbourhood very exten-
sively, and numerous hands find busy employment in
the different mills — these with their tall led chimneys
exhibit an interesting contrast with the lofty Ochils
and the surrounding plain. Though now somewhat
out-stiipped in the field of commercial enterprise by its
more spirited neighbour Tillicoultry, Alva yet far sur-
passes some of the Scottish burghs for its mercantile
activity and iu portance. In the village is a branch of
the Union Bank of Scotland. The 'House of Alva,'
the residence of a respectable! branch of the family of
Johnstone, stands on an eminence, projecting fromthe
base of Wood- Hill, about two hundred and twenty feet
above the bed of the Devon, which flows westward to
join the Fotth in the valley below, and fourteen hun-
dred below the apex of the mountain. From the sum-
mit, which rises to an elevation of 1,770 feet above sea
level, the eye sweeps over an immense range of pictur-
esque and interesting scenery, stretching all the way
from the German ocean on the east to the Campsie
hills, on the west, and includes among other attractive
objects, the Lammermuir chain, the Bass Rock, Edin-
burgh, Arthur's seat, the Pentlaud hills, and the lovely
and classic windings of the Forth. Perhaps the most
interesting object for an antiquarian in the whole par-
ish ot Alva would be the well of St. Leif, or Lew amis
— the tutelar Saint of the district, which continr.es to
to pour out its hiight and sweet waters in the minis-
ter's glebe at a little distance from the parish church.
Tillicoultry, a manufacturing village, two miles
ast of Alva, and three west of Dollar; is pleasantly
situated on the side of the Ochil Hills, and on the road
from Stilling to Kinross — nine miles from the former,
and fifteen from the latter town. A branch of the
Dumferline and Stirling railway runs between Alloa,
and the village, and a parliamentary bill has beeu ob-
tained for the formation of a railway, between it and
the county town of Kinross. It is well supplied with
excellent water from a stream that issues from the
hills immediately behind the village. The river Devon,
when not far from its soutce, and when flowing east-
watd, forms the northern boundary of the parish of
Tillicoultry; and, after pursuing a circuitious course
of about 14 miles beyond the parish, again enters it
running westward, and cuts its arable plain into two
nearly equal parts. The village of Tillicoultry is rapidly
rising into a place of considerable importance from the
woollen manufacture, established here, and likewise
at Devonside, chiefly for making shawls, fancy
plaids,clan tartans, tweeds, &c. and at the Great Exhi-
bition of 1851, the Messrs Paton, of this village, carried
off the first prize for the finest woollen shawls manu-
factured in Great Britain. In these branches the village
and its neighbourhood, furnish employment to a very
large number of the industrious class; some of the
mills suppoi ting between nine hundred and a thousand
persons. Though recognized only as a village, yet Tilli-
coultry considerably exceeds, in size, and far exceeds
in commercial enterprise and importance, very many
Sir John Erskiue, of Alva, about the year 1715, assisted! of the Scottish burghs, and the same remark with
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