Overview
 Most
of the roads below are mentioned in charters of the
Abbey of Cambuskenneth which lies just across the river
from Stirling. Founded by David I around 1140 it became
one of the weathiest monasteries in Scotland.
Most of the references are to
local roads and tracks. Thus the road to the ships led
down to the Shore at Stirling which could be reached
by boats of the day. A little further on would take
one opposite the abbey. One at Arngask led between the
church and village. Several streets in towns are mentioned
including St Mary's Wynd in Stirling that led from the
castle towards the abbey. There would also have been
tracks to the abbey's granges and to mills, though these
are not mentioned.
There were a couple of longer
routes from Stirling. The Lang Causey led north from
the forerunner of the existing old bridge for a mile
across marshy ground and to the south a main road led
to St Ninians. Both of these are likely to have given
access to major routes; the Lang Causey in fact accessed
a via regia that ran along the foot of the Ochils and
is mentioned in the Tillicoultry charter. The abbot's
"great carriage road" probably crossed the
Forth at the Abbey Ford and either went directly to
Throsk where the abbots had a residence or joined a
pre-existing route between Stirling and Airth.
Bridges and ferries are mentioned:
apart from Stirling, there was the Bridge of Earn giving
access to Perth and one at Dunkeld and there were ferries
just east and west of the abbey, at Hood and at the
Abbey Ford.
The most unusual reference is
to a pontoon bridge built by Edward I for his campaign
of 1303 so that he could bypass Stirling in his progress
north. It is said to have contained close to 300 pontoons
which would easily have spanned the Forth, probably
somewhere above Kincardine. After use, it was put into
storage at Berwick but brought north again for the campaign
against Stirling Castle before finally being broken
up and used in various building works.
Stirling
- road to the ships
Three charters, dating from 1195,
1207 and circa 1150 respectively, refer to a road leading
down from Stirling to the ships, as follows:
 Charter
25, page 43
the land which lies on the bank of the Forth between
Pulmille and the road leading down from Stirling to
the ships
...terram que adiacet
ripe de Forth inter Pulmille et viam que discendit de
Striueling ad naues…(Abstract,
page 330)
Charter 26, page 47
the land near the bank of the Forth between Polmilna
and the road leading down from Stirling to the ships..
….terram
que est iuxta ripam de Forth inter Polmilna et viam
que discendit de Striuelingth ad naues...(Abstract,
page 332)
Charter 190, page 278
.... the land lying between the Forth and the road leading
from Stirling to the ships as far as the stream which
comes down from the King's mill on the Forth..
.... terram que jacet inter Forth et
viam que descendit de Striueling ad naues vsque
ad riuum qui descendit a molendino regis in Forth..(Abstract
page 388)
Interpretation
The road is shown on the above map and presumably continued
as far as the point opposite the abbey. The mill referred
to is probably the Burgh Mill which was served by a
stream on which there was a dam just south of the mill
(see 1st edition 6" map).
Fuleche
- Abbot's Carriage Road
Charter 104, Page 136
This charter, dating from around 1200, confirms an earlier
grant of land adjacent to the abbey’s carriage
road leading past meadows near the Forth, viz.
Charter by Malcolm, the son of
Malcolm the son of Roger, with advice and consent of
his parents and friends, confirming the grant which
Roger his grandfather and Malcolm his father made to
the church of St.Mary of Cambuskenneth and the canons
thereof, of the whole land adjacent to the west side
of the Abbot's great carriage road leading to the meadows
belonging to the burgesses, and so onwards to the Forth
and to the river Fuleche, which falls into the Forth,
and to a small sike which falls into the Fuleche from
the east, and along by certain rocks back to the Abbot's
great carriage road (Abstract,
page 357)
... scilicet, totam
terram penes occidentalem partem adjacent magne vie
quadrigarum abbatis que tendit vsque ad prata burgensium,
et ita vsque ad aquam de Forth, et sic contra aquam
de Forth descendentem vsque in quendam riuum qui vocatur
Fuleche descendentem in Forth, et sic contra cursum
de Fuleche vsque in quendam paruum sicum ab oriente
descendentem in Fuleche, et tunc penes orientem vsque
ad quamdam petram, deinde vero penes australem plagam
vsque ad alteram petram, et deinceps penes orientem
vsque ad terciam petram, et ita in prenominatam magnam
viam quadrigarum abbati (original text, page 136)
Interpretation
 |
| Possible course of the Abbot's
"Great Carriage Road". Another possibility
is that there may have been a track of sorts between
Stirling and Airth, and that the Abbot's road took
a shorter route to join this before continuing to
Throsk. Airth, which existed at the time, is about
4 miles beyond Throsk. |
An entry in James Ronald's Landmarks
of Old Stirling, 1899 (page 115) locates the road
at the Borrowmeadow, saying: "Borrow-manis-meadow,
also called the Meadows of the Burgesses, occupied a
loop of the Forth on the south side opposite to Cambuskenneth,
and is first brought before our notice in the year 1200
(entry above). The Abbots of Cambuskenneth had their
residence at Throsk, and reference is made in that year
to the "Abbots great carriage road leading past
the Meadows of the burgesses," evidently from Throsk
to the Abbey Ford."
This accords very well with the
charter if we take the Fuleche to be the same as the
burn to the east of the Town Burn under the Ferry Boat
of Hood entry below. In addition, Fuleche is in this
area as noted in a paper on Old Place-Names In And Near
Stirling (The
Stirling Antiquary - see page 170, Fuleth) .
Stirling
(town)
Several charters relating to property
mention St Mary‘s Vennel (a vennel is a narrow lane)
and the common king‘s highway leading to the castle,
in Stirling, viz:
Charter 211, page 301
.....lying in the vennel
of the blessed Mary (St Mary's Vennel) on the east side
of the same (school) which was Laurencii Dridane's from
the north side of a tenement of a certain Walter Galbraith
and on the south side of the king's street...
.....jacente in vinella beate Marie ex
parte orientali eiusdem quod fuit quondam Laurencii
Dridane ex parte boreali tenementi quondam Walteri Galbraith
et ex parte australi vici regii (dated 1481)
Charter 212, page 302
...in the vennel of St Mary the Virgin on the western
side of the same and the land of Thome Horne on the
south side and the common vennel leading to the castle
of the said burgh on the north side....
.....in vinella sancte Marie Virginis
ex parte occidentali eiusdem et terram Thome Horne ex
parte australi et communem vinellam ducentem ad castrum
dicti burgi ex parte boreali (dated 1481)
Charter 213, page 306
… in the vennel
of Sancte Marie between the land of Thome Horne on the
south side, and the common king’s highway leading
to the castle of the said burgh, on the north side
….in vinella Sancte Marie inter
terram Thome Horne ex parte australi, et communem viam
regiam ducentem ad castrum dicti burgi ex parte boreali
(dated 1482)
Charter 210, page 299
This charter of 1412 mentions a
Hillwynd in Stirling, leading to the bridge:
......lying in the burgh
of Stirling and in the street called Hilweynd leading
to, and opposite, the bridge of Forth from the western
side of the same...
......jacens in burgo de Striueling et
in vico qui dicitur Hilweynd, ducente et aduersus pontem
de Forth ex parte occidentali eiusdem
Stirling
- The Lang Causey
 This
ran from the bridge up to the spittal at Airthry (Causewayhead).
James Ronald (Landmarks
of Old Stirling, page 124) discusses a document
dating from 1220 that records a dispute between the
convent of North Berwick and Dunfermline Abbey over
the tithes of Airthry and Cornton that mentions the
road. The bridge would have been the forerunner of the
present day old bridge, and is thought to have been
about 180 yards upstream from this.
Relevant extracts from the document
are:
- from the head of the Causeway
at the point next to the hospital, as far as the peat
moss of Airthrey;
- and the piece of land on the east side of the road
which leads from the hospital to the town of Airthrey;
- hold in peace the tithes of the hospital lands lying
betwixt the Causeway and Cornton.
The fact of this being a causeway
is suggestive of it being the Roman road that passed
through or close to Stirling but this is not certain.
The ground it crossed was very marshy so it could have
been a necessary complement to the bridge and contemporary
with it.
Tillicoultry
 Charter
222, page 315
In this charter, dating
from c.1300, Colin Cambell, Lord of Tullicultry, granted
the abbey and the church of Tillicoutry, 10 acres of
land, along with two oxen to help with the tilling,
viz.
Ten acres of arable land lying
in the territory of Tillicoultry, namely, as the said
land stretches from the said church by a path to the
north, then proceeding west as far as the king’s
highway, and from the said church as a stream extends
and flows on the east to the same king’s highway
towards the south…
... decem acras terre arabilis jacentes
infra territorium de Tullicultre, videlicet, sicut dicta
terra se extendit de dicta ecclesia per semitam in aquilone
procedentem versus occidentem vsque ad viam regiam,
et de dicta ecclesia sicut riuus se extendit et currit
in parte orientali vsque ad eandem viam regiam versus
merediem
The same land is mentioned in
charter 223, page 316 (dated 1315) in almost exactly
the same terms.
Interpretation
The church was sited near Tillicoultry House (NMRS
record) and although it and the cemetery are not
shown on the 1st edition 6" map, the stream is.
It is now in a housing estate.
The via regia appears to be the old road that ran along
the foot of the Ochils, parallel to and about half a
kilometre north of the turnpike, now the A91. It is
interesting to see that the towns along this route like
Alva, Tillicoultry and Dollar originally had their centres
where this road passed through. The
1st series of the 1" map (Sheet
39, Stirling) shows sections of the road along its
length.
It is hoped to form a "Hillfoots Way" using
existing sections of the old road (see Ochils
Landscape Partnership). Background details of the
road and a description of existing stretches with photos
can be found on Jimpson's Links - The
Old Statute Labour Road along the Hillfoots
Arringrosk
(Arngask)
 Charter
22, page 34; see also page 327-8
In this charter of 1527, granting some land to be
used for the manse, gardens and buildings of the chaplain
serving the church of Arngask, there is mention of a
road, viz:
....also two acres of land adjoining the cemetery of
the said church on the south side of the same, and on
the south side of a certain path or road which goes
from the said cemetery to the nearby vill of Arryngrosk,
(to be used) for the manse, garden, and buildings of
the said lord Willelmi (the priest) and his succesors
at the chapel...
.....necnon
et duas acras terre continuo adiacentes cemiterio dicte
ecclesie ad partem australem eiusdem, et ex parte australi
cuiusdam semite seu vie qua itur de dicto cemiterio
ad villam de Arryngrosk adiacentes,
pro manso, ortis et edificiis dicti domini Willelmi
et suorum successorum capellanorum (see also Abstract,
page 328)
Interpretation
Although the church
and cemetery can be identified, the Military Survey
map shows the manse to the south-east of the kirk, close
to where Arngask House is now rather than to the north-east
as shown on more recent maps. This suggests the path
was along this line, though presumably very short.
In the middle ages, the
main route from Kinross to the Bridge of Earn and Perth
ran through what is now the village of Glenfarg.
St
Ninians, Kirktown
 Charter
110, page 142
Charter by David, Bishop of St. Andrews, granting to the
church of St. Ninian of Kirketoun, in name of endowment,
that land which lay near the church, on the north side,
between the great road from Stirling to Kirketoun and
the footpath leading from the said road to the Bishop's
houses near the church 1242 (Abstract,
page 359)
.... concessisse et hac
carta nostra confirmasse Deo et ecclesie Sancti Niniani
de Kirketoun, nomine dotis, terram illam que iacet prope
dictam ecclesiam in parte aquilonari, inter magnam stratam
que se extendit de Striueling vsque Kirketoun et semitam
que procedit de ilia magna strata et se extendit usque
domos episcopi sitas iuxta predictam ecclesiam...
(original text, page 142)
Interpretation
From Adair's map (1685) and the Military Survey
(c.1750), both of which show roads, this is very likely
to be the old main road shown on the map (a new road
runs to the east of this). James Ronald (Landmarks
of Old Stirling, 1899, page 151-152) suggests the
footpath was the one shown on the above map that led
off this road and went to Braehead and Calton - it is
now built over (see 25" map, Stirlingshire
017.07, 1897).
Stirling
De escambio terre de Striuelin
On an exchange of land in Stirling
Register of Dunfermline:
Charter 72, page 39. Barrow dated 1165x1174
This charter relates to King William
compensating the abbey for encroaching on some of their
land when making a park to the south-west of the castle.
It mentions a magna strata leading south from Stirling
to Cuiltedouenald. G W S Barrow suggests this might
have been in St Ninian's parish. The following translation
is from Stirling
Castle, Eric Stair-Kerr, 1913 page 11/12
"William King of Scots to all good men of his whole
realm greeting. Know that I have granted and given and
by this charter have confirmed to God and the Church
of the Holy Trinity at Dunfermline and the monks there
serving God and to the Chapel of my Castle of Stirling
in exchange for their land which I formerly included
in my park, when I first enclosed my park, the land
which is between their land which they have outside
the park and the boundary of the land of Kirkton, and
on the other side the land which is between Cambusbarron
- the land of Peter of Stirling - and the land of Roger,
son of Odo, as the highway (magna strata) leads to Cuiltedouenald,
as Richard Morville, the constable, Robert Avenel, the
justiciar, Ralph the sheriff and Peter of Stirling have
marked it out: to be held in perpetual alms. Witnessed
by Richard de Morville, constable, Robert Avenel, justiciar,
Alan, son of the Steward, Adam, son of Thomas, Roger
de Voloniis, Ralph, Sheriff of Stirling, Peter of Stirling,
Walter de Berkeley, Richard the clerk, At Stirling."
See also G W S Barrow, RRS II,
The Acts of William I, 1971, pps 206/7, 494
Charter 467, page 366
This charter mentions a via regia in Stirling.
Towns
(Edinburgh, Berwick, Perth)
Charter 96, page 127 Edinburgh
Mention of Cougait
Page xxiii, Berwick
land in St. Mary's Street in the town of Berwick
Charter 195, page 281 Perth
This concerned a croft of land lying near the place
of the Carthusians of Perth on the north side and the
common way on the western side.
.....jacentis prope
locum Cartusiensium de Perth ex parte boreali et occidentali
vie communis
The monastery is thought to have been in King Street
near to Canal Street, and to have been established in
1426.
Bridge
of Earn
 Charter
182, page 261
This charter, dating from 1530 and relating to part
of the lands of Kintulach, refers to the Bridge of Erne,
viz.
...lying in the parish of Dunbarney, near the Bridge
of Erne, in the shire of Perth
...infra parochial de Dunberny prope
pontem de Erne infra vicecomitatum de Perth (for further
information see Abstract,
page 384)
Bridge
of Dunkeld
Charter 184, page 268
This charter, dating
from 1260, mentions the bridge of Dunkeld.
Ferry
Boat of Hood
 Page
cxvii In a document of 1709 on the disposal of the lands
of Cambuskenneth there is a mention of the ferry boat
of Hood.
A footnote on page cxviii says,
"In a recent question
as to the salmon-fishings in the Forth, it is explained
that the lands contained in that disposition are situated
on the left bank of the Forth, and extend from a considerable
distance, at least a mile above the shore or harbour
of Stirling, as far down as the Ruddery Pow, about a
mile below the shore of
Stirling. The farm of Hood begins within the upper march
mentioned at the point marked "Ferry," on the map referred
to, and runs down near to the Ruddery Pow along the
river side all the way."
Interpretation
The map shows Hood and the ferry. The only uncertainty
is the identification of Ruddery Pow. From the ferry
to the Town Burn is 1380 yards, and 2400 yards to the
stream east of this. As a mile in 1707 would have been
approximately 1976 yards rather than 1760 yards, the
Ruddery Pow could have been either of these streams.
Ford
"On 1st June 1604, the Magistrates of Stirling directed
that the ford at the back of the Abbey, and beside the
Blackwilly, be red and cleaned of the stones therein,
which stopped the passage of the same."
From page cxi of the Register. Original reference from
Records of the Town of Stirling, vol.1597 to 1619.
Interpretation
This must be the ford to the east of the abbey as
seen on the above map.
Pontoon
Bridge - Edward I
In volume 2 (no.1375)
of the Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland (edited
by Joseph Bain, Edinburgh, 1884) details are given of
preparations carried out in King's Lynn for the construction
of a pontoon bridge to be used in Edward I's Scottish
campaign of 1303-4. He had wanted a bridge in 1302 but
it was delayed through lack of funds. A similar bridge
had been constructed at Anglesey in 1283.
The purpose of the bridge was
to outflank the obstacle of Stirling Castle which guarded
the route to the north. There were English garrisons
north of the Forth which were linked by the sea and
by ferries to the south of Scotland but these would
be insufficient to transport and supply an invading
army.
In his paper, Wall-Breakers and
River-Bridgers: Military Engineers in the Scottish Wars
of Edward I, Journal of British Studies, v.10, 1971,
A. Z. Freeman gives additional details of the construction
which make clear what a huge undertaking it was. Some
300 pontoons were made, of three types, main, middle
and fixed and were taken by sea from King's Lynn by
30 vessels. Spares were held at Berwick while the bulk
were sent up to the Forth.
 |
| The Forth between Kincardine
and Stirling. In the middle ages the river was wider
and may have had a slightly different course in
places. |
It is not at all certain where
the bridge was placed. The number of pontoons would
easily allow a crossing of hundreds of yards which would
make it feasible for it to be placed upriver from Kincardine
where the river today is half a mile wide. It is unlikely
to have been placed much higher than Alloa as this would
take it too near to Stirling.
The bridge did not take long to
erect and was crossed in early June 1303 with the king
spending a day or two at Clackmannan, although Pierre
de Langtoft (The
Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, vol.2, p.349),
a contemporary chronicler, says it was not needed though
it is hard to see how infantry and baggage trains could
cross the Forth unless water levels were extremely low
at any fording point.
Once Edward had finished his campaign
in the north he turned his attention to Stirling. Watson
(p.234) refers to documents that show that the bridge
was to be brought to Blackness and then to the king
who was staying at Cambuskenneth across the river from
Stirling.
The final mention of the bridges is in 1304-5 under
item 1722 (CDS) where "all the timber, boards,
apparatus and other machinery of the bridges made by
the King for his crossing Forth, which remain in the
Chamberlain's custody at Berwick-on-Tweed" were
to be used for building works in several locations.
References
Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, edited by
Joseph Bain, Edinburgh, 1884, Vol.2,
(no.1375)
Haskell, Michael Alexander (1991)
The
Scottish campaign of Edward I, 1303-4, Durham theses,
Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online:
http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6101/
Watson, Fiona Jane (1991) Edward
I in Scotland: 1296-1305. PhD thesis. Glasgow University.
http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2222/
Wall-Breakers and River-Bridgers: Military Engineers
in the Scottish Wars of Edward I, A. Z. Freeman, Journal
of British Studies, v.10.1971
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