the Forth Naturalist Historian - Forth Naturalist and Historian ...

144 Louis Stott
and that the ferryman might be punished for his disobliging obduracy, he
forthwith determined to erect a bridge,
Charles Roger A Week at Bridge of Allan 1851
The other old bridge in Doune, Ardoch Bridge, close to the Castle has a
plaque stating that it was repaired at the public expense of the shire in 1735. It
was used by Prince Charlie in 1745. Above Doune the Teith is pre-eminently the
river of the Trossachs. On its first major tributary is Keltie Bridge, a narrow
pack-horse bridge dating from the period when road communication was first
extended towards the Highlands. Higher up the same stream is Bracklinn
Bridge, a footbridge at the waterfall associated with Scott, and a good country
stone bridge at Eas na Caillich. At Callander the Old Brig was taken down in
1908. Its high arches featured on prints and postcards until then showing the
famous view of the holiday town with Ben Ledi in the background; later
studies of the same scene incorporate the flatter-arched new bridge, made of
concrete, but faced with stone.
By far the most famous bridge in the Trossachs is Brig o’ Turk, situated at the
entrance to Glenfinglas. This eighteenth century stone bridge was
reconstructed and widened in 1931-32. Nearby, hardly known at all, is a much
more genuine article, a narrow old bridge hidden in the woods between Loch
Achray and Loch Venachar, the Brig o’ Michael (Mickle) across the Blackwater.
At the foot of Loch Venachar are two stone bridges which, like Cardross Bridge
were built with money from the forfieted estates after the Jacobite uprising,
Gartchonzie Bridge (1779) and Kilmahog Bridge (1777), which has a plaque.
Kilmahog is an example of a bridge called a ‘Roman’ bridge. There are three old
bridges at Strathyre and at the foot of Loch Voil, one of which, Calair Bridge,
is at the entrance to Glenbuckie where there are deligtful, if neglected,
waterfalls. In his very interesting book Robert Louis Stevenson and the Scottish
Highlanders the former town clerk of Stirling, David Morris, describes
Glenbuckie thus:
Glenbuckie is a wild highland glen at the northern end of the mountain pass that
leads to Bridge of Turk. Its stream is the Calair Water, which, just before it joins the
Balvaig near the exit of that river from Loch Voil, forms an islet known as the Black
Isle, amid a scene of great beauty. It is the traditional site of the defeat of the
Buchanans of Leny in the fifteenth century, in a desperate clan fight against the
M’Larens assisted by the MacGregors.
David Morris 1929
What makes this fight memorable is that it originated when a Buchanan hit
a MacLaren with a salmon at a fair in Callander. Bridges of today are unlikely
to be remembered for such outlandish occurrences. These old stone bridges
flung over roaring highland rivers seem as remote in time as the Forth Road
Bridge seems up to date. However, they were the original Forth Bridges.