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

88 L. Corbett
1891
From the Scottish Chiefs, by Jane Porteous pp362-3
“As the chief meant to assume a border minstrel’s garb, that he might travel the
country unrecognised as its once adored Regent, he took his way towards a large
hollow oak in Torwood, where he had deposited his means of disguise (a) –
(a) The remains of a venerable oak, bearing Wallace’s name, has long been
revered in this wood. Indeed, there are several oaks consecrated to his
memory in various parts of Scotland: some as his shelter at one place, some at
another; for he who often has to watch for his country, without ‘bield or
board’, must have been glad of a tree canopy or a cave for his lodging. More
than one of these fine old oaks (of perhaps a 1000 years ‘age’) (4), has been
lopped in our own times to afford relics of the hero; in the shape of caskets,
crosses, and even rings set in gold. Of all these forms, the writer of The Scottish
Chiefs has had presents from their brave and noble descendents; namely – the
late Earl of Buchan; Lady Macdonald Lockhart; the Lady Charlotte Gordon;
the Duchess of Richmond; etc etc ”
(Jane Porteous 1891)
See note (4) for a notable example from the Elderslie Wallace Oak.
(King)
1903
Torwood … from F. H. Croome’s Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland volume 1,
1903 –
“Torwood a village in Dunipace parish … to the S. are the ruins of Torwood Castle,
mid 16th C … surrounded by the Tor Wood, a remnant of the ancient Caledonian
Forest and the hiding place of Sir William Wallace. The true ‘Wallace Oak’ here is
gone forever though a shoot of it was thriving as late as 1835 … an old thorn tree
near it was very possibly the identical tree beneath which Donald Cargill
excommunicated Charles 11, Sept 1680 (Transactions of the Highland Agricultural
Society 1881, p204)”
(LC)
1908
Quotes from Gibson’s Lands and Lairds of Larbert and Dunipace in footnotes to
the chapter on Woodside estate, being information communicated to Gibson
by Mrs Houston of Johnston Castle, who was a grand-daughter of Mrs
Sylvester Douglas Stirling of Glenbervie, and states that this is partly based on
information given by her grandmother whose knowledge of the places dated
from 1832.
“Cargill’s Thorn at one time marked the spot where the Covenanter Donald
Cargill excomunicated Charles II, but is no longer in existence having been blown
down 10 to 15 years ago. It stood on the east side of the Falkirk/Stirling road on
Woodside estate which originally formed part of the ancient Low Torwood.”
“Wallace’s Oak which stood on another part of Woodside (Low Torwood) has also
vanished. There is an account of it in the second edition of Nimmo’s History of
Stirlingshire, in which the editor calls it “an august vegetable”. Mention is made