ALLOA, a parish and burgh of barony, sea-port town, in
the county of Clackmannan, 7 miles (E.)
from Stirling; containing, with the villages of Cambus,
Coalyland, Holton-Square, and Tullibody, 79'21 inhabitants,
of whom 5434 are in the burgh. This place, the
name of wliich, in various documents written Aiileiiay
and Alloway, is supposed to signify in the Gaelic
language " the wav to the sea ", includes also the ancient
parish of Tullibody, memorable for the erection of its
village, in 834, by Kenneth M'Alpine, on the plain
where he encamped the main body of his army previously
to the victory which put an end to the Pictish
dynasty in Scotland. In 1149, David I. erected, and
annexed to the abbey of Cambuskenneth founded by
him on the field where the battle took place, the church
of Tullibody, which he endowed with land, and with
some islands in the Firth of Forth, for the maintenance
of the officiating priests. In 1.559, the French forces
under General D'Oysel, who were stationed on the coast
of Fife, on the appearance of the English fleet made a
precipitate retreat to Stirling; but being retarded in
their progress by Kirkcaldy of Grange, who had broken
down the bridge of Tullibody, they unroofed the church,
and, converting the timbers into a temporary bridge,
effected their escape across the Forth. The church, thus
exposed to the injuries of the weather, soon fell into a
state of dilapidation; and the parish of Tullibody, about
the time of the Reformation, became united to that of
Alloa. In 1645, the Earl of Montrose, on the night
before the battle of Kilsyth, encamped his forces in the
woods of Tulhbody, and was hospitably entertained by
the Earl of Mar in his castle of Alloa.
The family of Erskine, ancestors of the Earls of Mar,
were distinguished at an early period for their eminent
services; and John, the fifth earl, who became Regent
of Scotland, was entrusted with the guardianship of
!Mary, Queen of Scots, who, during her infancy, remained
under his protection at Alloa Castle till 1548, when, by
order of the estates of the kingdom, he conveyed her to
the court of France. John, the sixth earl, was appointed
guardian to the infant monarch, James VI., who spent
many of his earlier years at AUoa, and also at Stirling.
The castle of Alloa, anciently one of the residences of
the Scottish kings, was in the thirteenth century given
by David II. to Lord Erskine, in exchange for the
estate of Strathgartney, in the county of Perth. Of the
ancient edifice, one tower only is now remaining, eightynine
feet in height, and the walls eleven feet in thickness;
the other portions of the buildings which constituted the
family residence, were destroyed by an accidental fire in
1800, and a splendid mansion has been since erected by
the Earl of Mar. This is a spacious structure, of white
freestone from a quarry in the park, beautifully situated
on a gentle acclivity, within about '200 yards of the old
tower, and inclosing a quadrangular area ISO feet in
length, and 120 feet in breadth. The principal front
occupies the whole width of the area, forming an
elegant specimen of the Grecian style; and the interior
contains numerous stately apartments, superbly
decorated. Four entrance lodges, also, have been recently
built; but the whole of the arrangements are
not yet completed.
The TOWN is situated on the Firth of Forth, and,
though irregularly built, consists of several good streets.
John-street, planned by John, Earl of Mar, in the year
1704, is about eighty feet in width, leading to the quay,
and terminating in a gravel-walk, shaded by a row of
lime-trees on each side, and forming a pleasant promenade.
The old houses in the principal streets have been
mostly taken down, and replaced with modern buildings
of handsome appearance; and many of the shops display
much elegance of style. The streets are well paved,
and lighted with gas from works erected in 1S21, by a
company of shareholders, at an expense of £3000; the
inhabitants are also amply supplied with water, conveyed
into the town by pipes, from springs in the vicinity.
Considerable additions have been made to the
town, which is rapidly extending towards the west;
and within the few last years numerous villas have
been erected in that direction. The Clackmannanshire
library, founded here in 1797, is supported by annual
subscriptions of ten shillings each, and contains a collection
of more than 1500 volumes; there are also a
reading and news room, an Odd-Fellows' hall, and an
assembly-room. A mechanics' institution was established
in 1826, which was for some time well supported,
but of late has not been so warmly patronized: connected
with it is a library of 470 volumes.
The principal manufacture is that of woollens,
which, though formerly of very limited extent, has latterly
much increased, several additional mills having
been erected on a large scale. There are at present six
factories, four of which are worked by steam. The
chief articles are yarns, plaiding, shawls, tartans, druggets,
blankets, and cloth of various kinds, together
affording employment to ^OO men, seventy-two women,
and ninety children; and connected with the factories,
is an extensive establishment for the manufacture of
machinery. The glass manufacture, for which works,
commenced at an early period, were extended by a jointstock
company in 182.5, produces glass bottles equal to
those of Newcastle in Northumberland. There are eight
extensive breweries, five of which are in the town; the ale
produced is in high repute, and is sent in large quantities
to London, and exported to the continent. North and
South America, the East and West Indies, and other
places. Large distilleries are conducted at Cambus and
Carse Bridge. At that of Cambus, nearly 6000 gallons
are produced weekly, consuming about 374 quarters of
malt, and feeding 400 head of cattle; there are sixty
men employed in the establishment, and the amount of
duty paid to government exceeds £50,000 per annum.
The distillery at Carse Bridge is nearly equal in extent.
Extensive tanneries are carried on at Tullibody, in which
leather is made to the amount of £20,000 annually;
and there are also works for the manufacture of glue,
belonging to the same company, and mills, driven by
steam, for grinding bones for manure, together affording
employment to about forty men. The iron-foundry, and
works for the manufacture of steam-engines, are also
very extensive, employing nearly 100 men. There are
large potteries for white and coloured earthenware of
every kind, and the manufacture of bricks and tiles
occupies more than forty persons; the fire-bricks made
here are considered equal to those of Stourbridge, and
adjoining the works is a commodious wharf for shipping
the produce. Ship-building is also carried on; vessels
of 300 or 400 tons' burthen are frequently built, and in
1845 a vessel of 800 tons was launched here for the
foreign trade. Boat-building is pursued, and there is a
dry-dock for repairing vessels; the making of sails and
ropes is also considerable, and there are numerous mills,
driven by water and steam.
The PORT includes the creeks of Kincardine and
Stiriing, and is a bonding port. It carries on an extensive
coasting, and a considerable foreign, trade, the
latter chiefly with Holland and the Baltic. The principal
exports are coal, pig-iron, woollen goods, glass, ale,
whisky, leather, bricks, and tiles; the chief imports
coastwise are grain, malt, wine, groceries, wool, and
fullers'-earth, and, from foreign ports, timber, deals,
hemp, oak-bark, and bones for manure. The amount of
registered tonnage, including the creeks, is about 19,000
tons, of which about 10,000 belong to Alloa; the number
of vessels that entered inwards in 1838 was 600,
and the number that cleared outwards, 1250. Alloa
harbour is accessible at high water to vessels of large
burthen, and shipping may lie in safety at the quays,
which are commodiously adapted to the loading and
unloading of the cargoes, and on which is a customhouse.
A steam-boat ferry is maintained across the
Firth. It is a singular circumstance connected with
the tides in this district, that there are wliat are called
double or " leaky " tides, chiefly observed at high and
low water, during spring-tides: when the tide has flowed
apparently to its full height, it ebbs and flows downwards,
until it has sunk from a foot to fifteen inches
perpendicularly; the flowing then returns, and frequently
overflows the first flowing, more than a foot in
height. The market-days are Wednesday and Saturday,
the latter being the principal. Fairs are held on the
second Wednesday in Feb., May, August, and November;
the August fair, which is the most numerously
attended, is for hiring servants, and for general business,
and the other three are for cattle. The post-office has a
delivery twice a day; and facihties of intercourse are
afforded by the Stirling and Dunfermline railway, which
passes by Alloa: the Stirling and Granton steamers,
also, call here. Alloa was erected into a burgh of barony
in the reign of Robert Bruce, and is governed by
a baron bailie, appointed by the Earl of Mar; the courts
of the sheriff and justices of peace have been transferred
from Clackmannan to this town, and a county prison
has been recently built here.
The PARISH, which is bounded on the south by the
Forth, and on the east partly by the Black Devon, is of
very irregular form, comprising about 5000 acres, of
which 4375 are arable, 514 woodland and plantations,
and the remainder waste. Its surface, though not
mountainous, is beautifully diversified with hills of
moderate height, and fertile valleys. From the higher
of the eminences, none of which exceed 400 feet in elevation
above the Forth, are views of picturesque and
romantic character; a fine tract of rich carse land extends
along the banks of the Forth, and the scenery,
enriched with wood, and interspersed with streams, is
of very pleasing aspect. The river Devon flows through
the south-western portion of the parish, into the Forth,
at the village of Cambus, about two miles from Alloa;
and the Black Devon, after forming part of its eastern
boundary, takes a western course, and flows through the
parish into the Firth of Forth at Clackmannan. A
large reservoir called Gartmorn Dam, 160 acres in
extent, and thirty-seven feet in depth, was formed by
John, Earl of Mar, about the year 1700, by throwing a
dam-head across the Black Devon at Forest Mill; the
bed of that river was thus raised sixteen feet above its
former level, and from it he carried an aqueduct of four
miles in length, for the supply of this reservoir, which he
constructed for driving the machinery of the Alloa
colliery, and of several mills.
The soil of the lower lands is richly fertile, but of the
higher, thin and light, on a cold tilly bottom; the principal
crops are wheat, barley, beans, peas, and oats, with
the various green crops. The system of husbandry has
been much improved under the auspices of the Clackmannanshire
Agricultural Society; the lands have been
well drained and partially inclosed, and many of the
farm-buildings are now of a superior description. The
cattle are chiefly of the Ayrshire breed, with a few of the
short-horned, though no great number are reared; and
a few sheep, of various kinds, are fed for the butcher.
Very little of the ancient forests of Clackmannanshire is
now remaining; the principal woods are those of Tullibody,
in which are many stately trees of venerable
growth. The plantations consist mostly of oak and
other hard-wood trees, intermixed with firs; they are
regularly thinned, and are in a thriving state. The
substrata are, sandstone of different colours, clayslate,
limestone, and coal, which last occurs in seams varying
from a few inches to nine feet in thickness. Of the
sandstone two quarries are wrought, to a very moderate
extent, one affording stone of white, and the other of
a reddish, colour. The coal is extensively worked in
three several fields, the Coalyland, the Carse Bridge, and
the Sauchy, which extends into the parish of Clackmannan;
the average quantity annually raised amounts
to nearly 80,000 tons, which are conveyed to the harbour
at Alloa. The annual value of real property in the
parish is £21,951. Tullibody House, the seat of Lord
Abercromby, and the birth-place of General Sir Ralph
Abercromby, is pleasantly situated on the bank of the
Fortii, in a richly-planted demesne abounding with fine
old timber, and surrounded by thriving plantations.
Shaw Park House, a seat of the Earl of Mansfield's,
formerly the property of the Cathcart family, is a handsome
mansion on elevated ground, about two miles to
the north of the Forth, and commanding a very extensive
view embracing the windings of the river, with the
castle of Stirling, and the mountains of Ben-Lomond,
Ben-Ledi, and Tinto in Clydesdale.
For ECCLESIASTICAL purposcs Alloa is within the
bounds of the presbytery of Stirling and synod of
Perth and Stirling; patron, the Crown. The minister's
stipend is about £300, with a manse, and a glebe valued
at £63 per annum; there is also an assistant minister,
who receives the interest of two bequests, one of £800,
and the other of £500. The parish church, erected by
the heritors and feuars, in 1819, on a site given by the
late John Francis, Earl of Mar, is a handsome structure
in the later English style, with a square embattled tower
surmounted by a lofty spire, together '207 feet in height,
and contains 1561 sittings: the steeple of the old church
is still remaining, and near it is the mausoleum of the
Erskine family. The ancient church of Tullibody, which
had been in disuse from the time of the Reformation,
was restored about fifteen years since, and again appropriated
to the purposes of divine worship. There are
also places of worship for members of the Free Church,
the United Presbyterian Church, Independents, Wesleyans,
and Swedenborgians; and an episcopal chapel,
erected in 1840 from a design by Mr. Angus. The
parochial school is well conducted; the master has a
salary of £34. 4. 4., with an allowance of £16 in lieu of
house and garden, and the fees average £25 per annum.
The Alloa academy was erected in 1824, by subscription,
and for some few years a salary was received by the
rector, whose present income is derived solely from the
fees, of which a portion is paid to an assistant; the
course of studies is extensive, and the fees vary from 5«.
to lis. 6d. per quarter.
In repairing the road, in 1828, about twenty sepulchral
urns of Roman pottery were found, containing
burnt bones, placed in an inverted position, on a flagstone;
also two stone coffins, about three feet in length,
in each of which was a pair of bracelets of pure gold,
highly polished, but without ornament: one of the two
pairs was purchased from the workmen by Mr. Drummond
Hay, and deposited in the Antiquarian Museum,
Edinburgh. Several Roman coins have been discovered
in different parts of the parish; and a few years since,
a brass coin was dug up, having the letters S.C. on the
one side, and on the other the legend " Augustus Tribunus
". About a mile eastward from the town is an
ancient upright stone called the Cross, near which,
about forty or fifty years since, human bones were
found, and a coffin of flagstones, three feet in length, on
which were cut two small figures of the cross.