Allan Water

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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Allan, a river of Perth and Stirling shires, rising in Blackford parish, SE Perthshire, on the northern slope of Little Corum (1683 feet), one of the Ochil Hills. Thence it runs NNE toward Blackford village, SW to Dunblane, and S to the Forth, which it enters 1 mile below Bridge of Allan, after a course of 20 miles, 15 of which are closely followed by the Caledonian line from Perth to Stirling. Near Blackford it receives the Danny Burn, at Greenloaning the Knaik, Bullie, and Millstane Burns, and lower down the Muckle, Lodge, and Wharry Burns, all, like itself, yielding very fair trout fishing, which is mostly open to the public. The Alauna of Ptolemy, a town of the Damnonii, stood at the Allan's confluence with the Forth, a position guarding what was for many centuries the chief entrance to Caledonia from the S. See Strathallan.

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