Airthrey Castle
The 18th-century building with 19th-century additions occupies a beautiful setting in landscaped grounds in the southern edge of the Ochil Hills, above the Forth valley.
[1] Another, Brythonic rather than Gaelic, version sees the name as related to that of Airdrie in Lanarkshire, and parallel to the modern Welsh ard tref or "high steading or farmstead".
In 1645, the manor house at Aithrey was burned to the ground by Montrose's implacable foe, the covenanting Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll (1598–1661), reputedly in reprisal for an attack on Argyll's own estate at nearby Castle Campbell by Montrose's followers, en route to victory at the Battle of Kilsyth.
[7] He was succeeded by his infant son Charles Hope, 1st Earl of Hopetoun (1681–1742) who after attaining his majority was elevated by Queen Anne to the House of Lords in 1703 with the titles of Viscount Airthrie, Baron Hope and Earl of Hopetoun in the Peerage of Scotland, reputedly in gratitude for his father saving the life of her father King James II.
"His candour, meekness, and benevolence, his piety and spotless morals, commanded the esteem of all that knew him; whilst his cheerful sweet disposition, joined to a great fund of anecdote, rendered him an agreeable instructive companion.
He unhappily dipped too deep into polemical divinity, which, though it did not abate his charity towards those who were of a different opinion, exposed him in the decline of his faculties to the snares of Popish emissaries.
[12] "He returned home from the sea service of the East India Company with a great fortune" and was "an arrogant, ambitious, purse-proud man".
[12] "He conceived to himself the fashionable modern fancy of beautifying his place in an elegant manner, and considered it as an essential requisite to get quit of these roads which intersected his ground in an ugly and inconvenient manner; and, amongst others, he was not a little hurt with the idea of one passing hard by the door of his house; a situation which, whether really incommodious in itself or not, it is well-known no person chooses to put up with if he can possibly avoid it.
[16] It is also said that Haldane nearly drowned in Airthrey Loch, but was saved by a man called Sandy Morrison, a shoemaker, to whom in gratitude he gave the use of one of the lodges and a pension for life.
Refused permission by the East India Company to invest all in an ambitious mission in Bengal,[18] he proceeded instead to build a number of churches and seminaries in Scotland, fund the training of numerous missionaries, lead a theological revival in Geneva, and become the founder of Scottish Congregationalism.
On the back of this, Abercromby (by now in his eighties) decided to make the waters available for the public good, and invested in a properly engineered well-head to secure the source.
Herein lay the origins of adjoining Bridge of Allan as a spa town: it was transformed from a "sequestered retreat of rural life" to "a favoured resort of elegance and fashion", with the springs one of the highest quality in Great Britain.
He also served a term as Lord Dean of Guild for Glasgow, was a director of the Union Bank of Scotland, and was a member of Stirling County Council.
Donald Graham constructed a large addition to the castle in 1889–91, remodelling the north facade in a late Scots Baronial style.
[15] The original Robert Adam design survives largely intact on the south side of the building, facing the gardens and loch.
[27] Donald Graham died in 1901 after his carriage overturned on the drive at Airthrey and he caught pneumonia (his ornate monument is at neighbouring Logie Old Kirk).
[31] The maternity hospital at this stage had only 25 beds, but it nonetheless didn't reach full occupancy until a rush of evacuees following the 1941 Clydebank Blitz.
Two cottages were renovated for nurses and were reasonably comfortable, but approached by tree-shaded paths, they were seasonably infested by migrations of small frogs and were peculiarly squelchy underfoot in the dark.
Skating on the frozen loch was at first considered safe if the shepherd's dog frolicked on the ice, until the gamekeeper's labrador fell through".
The Castle is pleasantly situated on ground rising to about 150 feet overlooking the Loch and Parks, and has extensive views in all directions.
The policy grounds are laid out with mature timber, rhododendrons (which are a feature in their season) etc., while the Loch with its trout fishing is an added attraction.
