Menstrie

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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M

enstrie, a village in the Clackmannanshire portion of Logie parish, 2¹/₈ miles W of Alva, 4 NW by N of Alloa, and 4³/₈ NE of Stirling. It stands, 75 feet above sea-level, on the left bank of Menstrie Burn, at the southern base of the Ochils, with Dunmyat (1375 feet) to the NW, and Myreton Hill (1240) to the NE. Powerlooms, for weaving Scotch blankets and other woollen goods, were introduced early in the present century; and to the factory of Messrs Archibald the larger Elmbank Mill was added in 1864, which is worked by a steam-engine of 90 horse-power, and yearly consumes raw wool material to the value of £33,000. The Dolls or Glen-ochil Distillery (1760) stands 1 mile ESE; and Menstrie besides has a post and telegraph office, a station on the Alva branch (1863) of the North British, gasworks, an Established chapel of ease (1880), and a handsome public school (1875). A quaint old house in the village is pointed out as the birthplace of the poet Sir William Alexander (1580-1640), first Earl of Stirling, and also of Sir Ralph Abercromby (1734-1801), the hero of Aboukir Bay. The beauty of the landscape is celebrated in the old-world rhyme, ascribed to a miller's wife, whom the fairies had sprited away'Oh! Alva woods are bonny. Tillycoultry hills are fair; But when I think o' the bonny braes o' Menstrie, It maks my heart aye sair.' Pop. (1841) 518, (1861) 455, (1871) 658, (1881) 918, of whom 462 were females. Houses (1881) 185 inhabited, 9 vacant, 1 building.—Ord. Sur., sh. 39, 1869.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer.