Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ALLOA
following table, which gives the tonnage of vessels that
entered and cleared from foreign and colonial ports and
coastwise, with cargoes and also — except for the three
first years — in ballast : —
Of the total, 10S7 vessels of 140,719 tons, that entered
in 1880, 327 of 44,2S1 tons were steamers, 457 of 71,678
tons were in ballast, and 737 of 78,423 tons were
coasters; whilst the total, 1090 of 139,976 tons, of
ihose that cleared included 326 steamers of 41,560 tons,
353 vessels in ballast of 36,565 tons, and 626 coasters of
52,627 tons. The trade is mainly, then, an export one,
and coal is the chief article of export, 159,780 tons of
£52.940 value having been shipped to foreign countries
in 1879, besides 15,236 coastwise. The exports (compris-
ing also ale, whisky, pig-iron, glass bottles, bricks, leather,
and woollen goods) amounted in that year to £57,067, the
imports (grain, timber, iron ore, hides, etc.) to £112,260,
and the customs to £23 ; the foreign commerce is prin-
cipally with Baltic, French, German, Dutch, and Belgian
ports. Shipbuilding has been carried on since 1790, and
thegraving dock, then constructed, can nowreceivevessels
of 800 tons, though only five sailing ships of aggregately
1605 tons were built here during 1875-80, nor does
fishing employ more than twelve persons, with six boats
of 4S tons. But ' as the virtual capital,' says Mr
Lothian, ' of a county which, though small in geogra-
phical extent, contributes from the Excise duties levied
on spirits, malt, etc., about a seventieth part of the
revenue of the United Kingdom, Alloa assumes a posi-
tion of considerable importance.' Its earliest brewery
was started in 1774, and at the eight existing now more
than 100,000 barrels of strong and pale ale are yearly
produced ; whilst of two whisky distilleries, Carsebridge
(1799) and Cambus (1806), the former alone has in a
single week yielded as much as 48,000 gallons. The
spinning and manufacture of wool, dating from 1S13,
engage six factories, where fully 11,000 tons of wool,
mostly home grown, are annually wrought into knitting,
hosiery, and tweed yarns ; and there are further 2
cooperages, 2 glass works, 5 saw mills and timber yards,
6 iron, copper, and engineering works, 3 rope-walks, 2
brick and tile yards, etc.
Camden identified Alloa with Ptolemy's Alauna,
which Skene rather places at the Allan's confluence with
the Forth. Twenty cinerary urns, supposed to be Roman,
were discovered at Marshill in 1828, along with two
stone coffins and a pair of gold penannular armlets ; a
sandstone block on Hawkhill, 10J feet high, and sculp-
tured with a cross, was found the year after to mark a
very early Christian cist. But apart from its Tower
the town has no memories beyond its pillage by Mon-
trose's Highlanders in 1645. A burgh of barony and
regality, it adopted the General Police Act in 1863, and
is governed by a senior and 2 junior magistrates, and
9 commissioners. Sheriff county courts sit durino- ses-
sion time every Wednesday and Friday, sheriff 'small
debt courts every Wednesday ; and quarter sessions are
held on the first Tuesday of March, May, and August,
and the last Tuesday of October. Saturday is market-
day, and fairs are held on the second Wednesday of
February, May (cattle), August (hiring), and November
(cattle), and on the second Saturday of October (hirincO
Valuation (1879) £38,983. Pop. (17S4) 3482, (1831)
4417, (1841) 5443, (1851) 6676, (1861) 7621, (1871)
9362, of whom 7511 were in the police burgh and 934
belonged to New Sauchie in Clackmannan : of police
burgh alone (1881) SS12.
ALLOA
The parish of Alloa contains also the villages of Cam-
bus, 2J miles WNW of the town ; Tullibody, 2f miles
NW ; and Collyland, 2 miles N. It is bounded N by
Alva, the Sauchie section of Clackmannan, and Tilli-
coultry, E and SE by Clackmannan, S by Airth and St
Ninians, W and NW by Logie. From E to W it has an
utmost length of 4J miles ; its width from N to S
varies between If and 3J miles, and its area is 6186J
acres, of which 3| are in Perthshire, 313J foreshore, and
371 water. The Forth winds 4j miles along all the
southern border, and here contains two low islets, Tulli-
body and Alloa Inches, the second and larger of which
is a valuable farm of 80 acres. The Devon traces 4
miles of the Alva and Logie boundary, next striking If
miles through the western interior to the Forth ; and
the carse lands of the latter and vale of the former con-
sist of alluvial fiats, with a fine rich soil incumbent on
strong clay. The district between, though somewhat
undulating, nowhere attains 300 feet above sea-level, and,
with soils ranging from loam-covered gravel to thin
earth resting on a cold till bottom, is all of it arable, and
has been greatly improved by draining. The formation
is Carboniferous, and coal has been mined in great
abundance since 1519 ; sandstone and ironstone also
have been worked. Gartmorn Dam, 2 miles ENE of
the town, is an artificial lake, measuring 6 by 2-| fur-
longs, and fed by the Black Devon. Natives were Jn.
Erskine, sixth Earl of Mar (1675-1732), leader of the
rebellion of 1715 ; David Allan (1748-96), the ' Hogarth
of Scotland, ' born at the Shore of Alloa ; and Rt. Dick
(1811-66), the Thurso geologist, born at Tullibody. Sir
Ralph Abercrornby (1734-1801), the hero of Aboukir
Bay, attended Alloa school. Alloa Tower, built about
1223, was in 1360 bestowed by David II. on Sir Robert
Erskine, Great Chamberlain of Scotland, whose seventh
descendant, John, sixth Lord Erskine, was in 1565
created Earl of Map. — a title which, forfeited in 1716,
was restored in 1824, and with which that of Earl of
Kellie (ere. 1619), was united in 182S. Their present
holder is Walter Henry Erskine, who, born in 1S39,
succeeded his father in 1872 as thirteenth Earl of
Kellie, and in 1875 was declared also fourteenth Earl of
Mar by judgment of the House of Lords (Rev. A. W.
Hallen's Mar Peerage. Case, 1S75). The tower is square
and of great strength, the walls 11 feet thick, the top-
most turret 89 feet high ; and this strength it was that
saved it from the great fire of 28 Aug. 1800, which
destroyed all the later additions, along with a portrait
of Mary Queen of Scots. Mary spent much of her child-
hood here, as also did James VI. and Prince Henry ;
and the latter's golf-club and James's cradle are still
preserved. The modern house (1S34-38) was much en-
larged between 1866 and 1872, when its gardens, with
terrace and lawns sloping down to the river, were like-
wise greatly improved. The four chief mansions in the
parish, with distance from the town, proprietors' names,
and the extent and yearly value of their - estates within
the shire are : — Alloa Park, 3 furlongs E (Earl of Mar
and Kellie, 6163 acres, £8256 + £1260 for coal) ; Tulli-
body House, 1J NW (Lord Abercrornby of Airthrey,
3707 acres, £5199) ; Schaw Park, 2J miles NE (Earl of
Mansfield, of Scone Palace, 1705 acres, £1751 + £1866
for coal) ; and Cambus House, 2 miles W by N (Rt. Mou-
bray, 76 acres, £641). In all, 8 proprietors hold in the
parish an annual value of £500 and upwards, 44 of be-
tween £100 and £500, 59 of from £50 to £100, and 134
of from £20 to £50. Alloa is in the presbytery of Stir-
ling and synod of Perth and Stirling ; the living is worth
£537. Two landward schools, Alloa Colliery and Tulli-
body, with accommodation for 291 and 186 children, had
(1879) an average attendance of 234 and 205, and grants
of £191, 2s. and £179, 7s. 6d. Valuation (1860) £26,927,
(18S1) £55,341, 8s. 5d. Pop. (1755) 5816, (1791) 4802,
(1831) 6377, (1841) 7921, (1851) 9493, (1861) SS67,
(1871) 9940, (1881) 11,638.— Ord. Sur., sh. 39, 1S69.
See Jas. Lothian, Alloa and its Environs (3d ed. , Alloa,
1S71) ; Jn. Crawford, Memorials of Alloa (Alloa, 1874) ;
and various papers in the Procs. of the Alloa Soc. of Nat.
Sci. and Archmol. (11 vols., 1865-75).
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