Thornhill, Stirlingshire, Scotland

Today’s trip was to Thornhill. For those of you with Stewarts in and around Tarr of Ruskie, Lennieston, Little Mill, Thornhill was probably the local metropolis!

Local historians have provided far more written detail on Thornhill’s history – links below. Key points: Thornhill first came into being in late 17th century. Even today it has very distinctive long Main Street and original layout still evident. It’s a conservation area and I had fun taking photos as the old School House and Post “Cottage” still exist along with many other old buildings. The pub in the village “The Lion and Unicorn” was an old drovers inn and predates the village itself so is 17th century (1635?). It’s got good beer apparently.

I went to the Norrieston churchyard in the village and what a beautiful view. To the right of the Celtic Cross you will see a tiny Ben Ledi peeking over!

The historian in the link below mentioned over a third of the menfolk of the village were lost in WWI, three Stewarts among them. Just a nice place to see and feel. As the link below shows, it is relatively untouched by modern life in terms of its appearance so easy to imagine what it was like many centuries ago.

http://www.lion-unicorn.co.uk/about/thornhill-history/https://thornhillstirling.org/history-of-thornhill/

At the other end of the Main Street is Blairhoyle Lodge built in the late 19th century which is apparently the smallest Masonic lodge in Scotland. One of the photos I took makes it look like the Masonic Lodge eats people. It has a face I swear! I also took a photo of the war memorial.