Gargunnock

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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Gargunnock, a village and a parish in the N of Stirlingshire. The village stands 7 furlongs SW of Gargunnock station on the Forth and Clyde Junction section of the North British, this being 24¼ miles ENE of Balloch, and 6 W by N of Stirling, under which there is a post and telegraph office. Occupying a pleasant site on the slope of a rising-ground, whose summit commands an extensive and beautiful view, it is a neat place, with little gardens attached to its houses.

The parish is bounded N by Kilmadock and Kincardine in Perthshire, E and SE by St Ninians, SW by Fintry, and W by Balfron and Kippen. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 55/8 miles; its utmost breadth, from E to W, is 4 miles ; and its area is 9913¾ acres, of which 54¾ are water. The river Forth winds 11½ miles east -by-southward along all the northern border, though the point where it first touches and that where it quits the parish are only 37/8 miles distant as the crow flies. It here has an average breadth of 60 feet, with a depth of 12 feet, and, at a point a mile from the eastern boundary, approaches close to Gargunnock station. Endrick Water, in two of its head-streams, traces much of the south-eastern and south-western borders ; whilst Boquhan Burn, coming in from Fintry, runs 4 miles north-by-eastward to the Forth along all the western boundary, and traverses a glen so grandly romantic and so beautifully wild as to have been sometimes compared to the Trossachs. Several burns rise in the interior, and run, some to Endrick Water, more to Boquhan Burn, or to the Forth ; and some of them have considerable volume, and rush impetuously down craggy steeps, forming in times of heavy rain far-seen and far-heard cataracts. Perennial springs are numerous, and two chalybeate springs are near Boquhan Burn. The northern district, all within the folds of the Forth, and a short distance southward thence, is carse land, from 35 to 44 feet above sea-level, and was covered for centuries by part of the ancient Caledonian Forest. Passing thereafter into a condition of moss so deep and swampy as to be almost worthless, it was in the course of last century completely reclaimed, and thenceforth possessed a value and fertility similar to the Carses of Stirling, Falkirk, and Gowrie The middle district, down to a line from nearly 2 miles to nearly 3½ S of the Forth, rises gently from the carse district, and lay in a neglected state, mostly -waste and wild, overrun with furze and broom, till towards the close of last century it was thoroughly reclaimed by draining and hedging and now is all an expanse of beauty, mostly under the plough, and largely embellished and sheltered with wood. The southern district consists entirely of the north-western portion of the Lennox range, called the Gargunnock Hills, whose highest point, Carleatheran (1591 feet), is 2 miles SSW of the village. It once was all, or nearly all, a moorish waste, but now in result of improvements is a capital sheep-walk, and commands, from the summits and shoulders of its hills a wide, diversified, and splendid prospect. The rocks beneath the low lands include red and white sandstone, and are thought to be carboniferous those of flip hills are chiefly eruptive. The soil of the carse is a rich, loamy clay, on a subsoil of blue or yellow clay, with subjacent bed of sea-shells ; that of the middle district, ill parts adjacent to the carse, is a fertile loam, and elsewhere is clayey and sandy ; whilst that of the hills is partly clay and partly wet gravel. Of the entire area, 1120 acres are in tillage ; 574 are under wood; 3638 are in pasture ; and nearly all the rest of the land is waste. Keir Hill near the village, was a fortified place in the end of the 13th century, and appears to have been surrounded by a rampart, and defended by two confluent streams and a fosse. It rises to a considerable elevation, and measures 140 yards in circumference on the summit. Gargunnock Peel, on a rising-ground, 50 yards from the Forth and 1 mile NE of the village, was erected seemingly to command a ford on the river, and was surrounded by a rampart and a fosse, but now is represented by only part of the fosse. Sir William Wallace, with a band of retainers, is said to have taken post upon Keir Hill, while an English garrison held Gargunnock Peel; and he sallied from the hill, drove the English from the peel, and then crossed the Forth by the Bridge of Offers ¼ mile higher up. An ancient tower belonging to the Grahams stood on the lands of Boquhan; its ruins were removed about the year 1760. A battle between the Grahams and the Leckies was fought, at some unrecorded period, on the western border of the parish; and here a great quantity of human bones, with spearheads and fragments of brass armour, were exhumed about 1800. Gargunnock House, 5 furlongs E by N of the village, is an interesting building, with a fine modern front, but a massive E wing of considerable antiquity; its owner, Col. John Stirling Stirling (b. 1832 ; suc. 1839), holds 1881 acres in the shire, valued at £1489 per annum. Other mansions, separately noticed, are Boquhan, Leckie, and Meiklewood ; and 3 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 3 of between £100 and £500. Gargunnock is in the presbytery of Stirling and synod of Perth and Stirling; the living is worth £246. The, parish church, at the village, was built in 1774, and contains 500 sittings. There is also a Free church station ; and a public school, with accommodation for 167 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 57, and a grant of £50, 1s. Valuation (1860) £7724, (1882) £8009, 19s. 6d., plus £1550 for railway. Pop. (1801) 954, (1831) 1006, (1841) 803, (1861) 728, (1871) 675, (1881) 698 &emdash; Ord. Sur., sh. 39, 1869.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

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

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