Gargunnock Estate Map 1790

The original of this map is ancient, with faded colours & delicate, discoloured paper. Securely and safely preserved in Stirling Council Archives perhaps but largely unknown.

Ancient it may be but it is crammed full of fascinating detail of what Gargunnock and its immediate surroundings were like 220 years ago. Roads where none exist now, farms long gone, clues as to land-use and ownership in a bygone era.  

But look at this re-creation of the old one in vibrant colour as it might have looked when new with added informative notes, sketches and other details.  That is what I have been working on over this past year using ancient maps of three of the five estates which lie, in whole or in part within the old Parish boundary, Leckie, Gargunnock and Meiklewood have been done. Boquhan (in whole) and Touch (a small portion) will be investigated later.

  

I hope to finalise them then obtain permission to display and explain them in much more detail by the end of 2014 so please come back and check from time to time.

Leckie Estate Map 1800

With the kind permission of Lady Younger of Leckie this map was similarly photographed, the photos joined together and a manual tracing performed, then additional text was added.

Unusually the original survey was drawn with South at the top so I had to produce the map first then then rotate it through 180 degrees to produce a more conventional layout.  

Once again a fascinating map to pore over if you are so inclined.

Meiklewood Estate 1869

Mr and Mrs Scott of Meiklewood also kindly gave me permission to photograph their estate map for tracing.

Smaller it may be but no less interesting for back in the early 1800s Col. Graham of Meiklewood devoted his time and energies to many improvements such as moss clearance, bridge building and road building.  

We must thank him for the Kirk Lane and the original bridge at the station.  He also had a tile factory on the estate.

More detail on this later.

Extract from the Grassom Map of Stirlingshire 1817

I have coloured the roads for greater clarity, red for the ones still visible today (trafficked or untrafficked) and blue for those which are now gone although often still traceable in part e.g. the one from the (S) Fleuchams to Kepdarroch or the one from Laigh Loan heading westwards.  Names are different or out of use nowadays; Kipdarroch, Blackdyke, Byreburn, Stablegreen, Courthill, Hill(head), Glentamie.  Houses are indicated on Main St although the street itself is not delineated.  By this time it was a cul-de-sac, Leckie Road having been built some years previously.  Two Bields are shown, the southern one accessed from a road, now long gone, starting to the west of the Leckie East Lodge.

No sign of the military turn-pike Dumbarton Road yet which was to be constructed later, passing close by Dasherhead and Piperland.

Gargunnock Feus 1862

This is a version of the map I created for Ian McCallum’s book on Gargunnock.  It shows the original feus set up in the 18th century superimposed on the 1862 OS map together with original feu owners and dates.  The earliest are dated 1726 and the latest 1777.  The original feus were gradually subdivided through successive generations until many were only about 6 metres wide, just enough for a house.  By this time Leckie Road had been built, perhaps in the 1790s) to bypass the steep Main St thus cutting through four of the original feus.  The Main St, originally a through road, was then blocked off at the top of the village.  There were no feus allocated on Manse Brae.