Bridge of Allan

Many thanks to Robert Alexander for facilitating this camera's location and to The Forth Rivers Trust for capitally funding its installation. The Allan Water rises in the Ochil Hills, it runs through Strathallan to Dunblane and Bridge of Allan before joining the River Forth. It is liable to cause floods in lower Bridge of Allan. At Bridge of Allan there are still in existence three very substantial weirs, the upper of which, formerly supplied the Airthrey Mills while the middle weir was positioned to collect the outfall from the Airthrey Mills as well as the main flow of the river. The lower weir and the middle and lower weirs supplied a changing assortment of mills and factories as recently as the 1950s. The area is now occupied by housing but many traces of the mill lades can still be seen, and the flow of water over the weirs remains impressive.Two broadside ballads refer to the "Allan Water". According to one, a Scottish ballad, the "Allan Water's wide and deep, and my dear Anny's very bonny; Wides the Straith that lyes above't, if't were mine I'de give it all for Anny." The other, more familiar, English ballad begins "On the banks of Allan Water" and relates the death of a miller's daughter whose soldier lover proves untrue. This version, popularised by C. E. Horn in his comic opera, Rich and Poor (1812), is sung by Bathsheba Everdene at the sheepshearing supper in Thomas Hardy's novel Far From The Madding Crowd (1874). A similar rendition was recorded with church organ accompaniment by Italian singer Ariella Uliano in 2008.