Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 1

ALLOA.
35
ALLOA.
protect and shelter the lower grounds. Within a
mile to the west, the Devon discharges itself into
the Forth ; and vessels of tolerable burden can load
and unload at a pier built at the mouth of that
river; while sloops and large boats loaded with
grain come up near to the village of Cambus. In
the north-east extremity of the parish is Shaw Park,
formerly the seat of Lord Cathcart, now of Lord
Mansfield. From the drawing-room windows, there
is in view a tine reach of the river, with a mag-
nificent far-away prospect, even to the hill of Tinto,
in Clvdesdale. Upon the eastern extremity of the
parish, there is a large artificial piece of water,
made about the beginning of the 17th century for
the use of the Alloa coal-works. It is called Gart-
morn dam; and when full, it covers 160 English
acres of ground. There are two collieries in the
barony of Alloa: the oldest of them, called the Alloa
pits, is about li mile distant from the shore; the
other is the Coalyland, and is about double that dis-
tance. There are various seams in each colliery ;
some of 3, 4, 5, and 9 feet in thickness. The pits
are free of all noxious damps, and have in general a
good roof and pavement, although there is iron
stone over some of the seams. In 1768, a waggon-
way was made to the Alloa pits, which proved to
be so great an advantage that it induced the pro-
prietor to extend it to the Coalyland, in 1771 ; and
this has been substituted, in the course of improve-
ment, b}^ the best kind of cast-iron railway. The
quantity of coal now annually raised in the parish
is from "76,000 to 80,000 tons.
The ancient families of Alloa and Tullibody have
all disappeared ; and the oldest and mightiest of the
present ones, though of ancient descent in connec-
tion with other districts, are comparatively modem
here. The branch of the Abercrombies which set-
tled at Tullibody towards the end of the 16th
century, were descended from the family of Birken-
boig in Banffshire. The Cathcart family only made
Shaw Park the seat of their residence, on parting
with the estate of Auchincruive in Ayrshire, which
they had possessed for ages. Their possessions in Al-
loa, and the adjoining parishes, descended to the late
Lord Cathcart from his grandmother Lady Shaw ;
whose husband had purchased them, in the begin-
ning of the 18th century, at a judicial sale, from the
Braces of Clackmannan. Neither can even the
Erskines be said to be originally of this parish, al-
though they got the lands which they now possess
here, in the reign of King Kobert Bruce. They
were originally settled in Renfrewshire. They suc-
ceeded by a female, in 1457, to the earldom of Mar;
but it was not until the year 1561 that they got
possession of it. It was at that time declared in
parliament, that the earldom of Mar belonged to
John, Lord Erskine, who, in the year 1571, was
elected regent of Scotland, on the death of the Earl
of Lennox. The title was forfeited by John, the
11th earl, taking part in the rebellion of 1715; hut
was restored in 1824, in the person of John Franois,
Earl of Mar. — The old parish of Alloa was anciently
a chapelry to the parish of Tullibody ; and the lat-
ter was a vicarage of the abbey of Cambuskenneth.
" There are the remains of an old church in Tulli-
body," says the Old Statistical Account, " the lands
of which, with the inches and fishings, are narrated
in a charter by David I., who founded the abbey of
Cambuskenneth, in the year 1147 ; and are made
over to that abbacy, together with the church of
Tullibody, and its chapel of Alloa. There are no
records of the union of these two churches of Alloa
and Tullibody. It seems probable, that it was
about the beginning of the Reformation. It appears
from John Knox, that, in the year 1559, when
Monsieur d'OyJel commanded the French troops on
the coast of Fife, they were alarmed with the ar-
rival of the English fleet, and thought of nothing
but a hasty retreat. It was in the month of Jan-
uary, and at the breaking up of a great storm.
William Kirkcaldy of Grange, attentive to the cir-
cumstances in which the French were caught, took
advantage of their situation, marched with great
expedition towards Stirling, and cut the bridge of
Tullibody, which is over the Devon, to prevent their
retreat. The French, finding no other means of
escape, took the roof off the church, and laid it along
the bridge where it was cut, and got safe to Stirling.
It is generally believed that this church remained
in the same dismantled state till some years ago,
that George Abercromby, Esq. of Tullibody, cover-
ed it with a new roof, and erected within ft a tomb
for his family. There is still a large burying.
ground around this church ; and on the north side
of it, where there had been formerly an entiy, there
is a stone coffin, with a niohe for the head, and two
for the arms, covered with a thick hollowed lid, like
a tureen. The lid is a good deal broken; but a
curious tradition is preserved of the coffin, viz. :
that a certain young lady of the neighbourhood had
declared her affection for the minister, who, either
from his station, or want of inclination, made no re-
turn ; that the lady sickened and died, but gave
orders not to bury her in the ground, but to put her
body in the stone coffin, and place it at the entry to
the church. Thus was the poor vicar punished ;
and the stone retains the name of the Maiden stone."
Population of the modem parish of Alloa in 1831,
6.377; in 1861,8,867. Houses, 1,110. Assessed
property in 1860, £26,927.
This parish is in the presbytery of Stirling, and
synod of Perth and Stirling. Patron, the Crown.
Stipend, £299 3s. 2d.; glebe, £63. Unappropriated
teinds, £101 9s. 7d. Schoolmaster's salary now is
£70, with £16 in lieu of a house and garden, £18
10s. fees, and about £20 other emoluments. The
parish church was built in 1819, at the cost of
£8,000, and has 1,561 sittings. There are two Free
churches in the town of Alloa, the East and the
West, and another Free church at Tullibody. The
yearly sum raised in 1865 in connexion with the
East Free church was £236 9s. 3d.; in connexion
witli the West Free church, £298 3s. 7id.; in con-
nexion with the Tullibody Free church, £170 19s.
9fd. There are two United Presbyterian churches;
the one called the West U. P. church, an old plain
building, with an attendance of from 300 to 600;
and the other, called the First U. P. church, a new
neat building, with an attendance of above 700.
The other places of worship are an Independent
chapel, built in 1839, an Episcopalian chapel built
in 1840, a meeting-place of Baptists, and a meeting-
place of Methodists. There are eight private
schools.
ALLOA, a burgh of barony, and post, market,
and sea-port town, in the parish of Alloa, Clack-
mannanshire. It is distant 7 miles from Stirling, 7
from Dollar, 20 from Kinross, and 37 from Perth,
The name has been variously written. In the
charter granted by King Robert in 1315, to Thomas
de Erskyne, it is spelled Alway; and, in some sub-
sequent ones, Aulway, Auleway, and Alloway,
Camden, in his ' Britannia,' seems to think it the
Alauna of the Romans. He says, " Ptolemy places
Alauna somewhere about Stirling ; and it was either
upon Alon [Allan] a little river, that runs here into
the Forth, or at Alway, a seat of the Erskines."
The windings of the Forth between Stirling and
Alloa are very remarkable. The distance, from the
quay of Alloa to the quay of Stirling, measured in