Forth Valley Food Links

 In the course of the survey, many people have come forward offering information about old orchards, several relating to the orchard at Drumdruills in Bridge of Allan.  We were therefore delighted when the Great-Great Grandson of the originator of the orchard contacted us.

Peter Gordon's grandfather Rab Scott was the last fruit-farmer in a family business. In 1894 Rab's father, and his grandfather planted the orchards at Drumdruills and Cornton. The latter have mostly gone into housing, but the old plant listings still exist. There is also a series of 1960's letters from Peter's grandfather when the orchard days were no longer viable.  The orchard is now under different ownership.

Peter writes:

"The list of past tenants is growing all the time – yet it is the family stories and the past life of the farm that should really occupy our interest. The ‘two lives’ of the farm: pre- and post-orchard were, as you can imagine, really quite different. The writer finds it is hard to imagine Drumdruills without trees, yet that is how it was for centuries!

The oldest reference the writer has come across talks of an Old Bond circa 1210, which links Drumdruills with the Bishop of Dunblane, and perhaps yet more excitingly with one of the first teachers of the day: MacBeth Rex (now that name conjures up all sorts does it not!)

“In a bond circa 1210 the name is given as 'Drumend du felis,' which may be rendered as Droman da folais, the little ridge between the two burns, i.e., the Wharry and the Cocksburn. In the bond named, Abraham Bishop of Dunblane undertakes to pay MacBeth Rex of the Schools and Scholastics of Dunblane two silver shillings yearly out of the revenue of Drumdruils. MacBeth is our first recorded headmaster (Dunblane).”

Two of the leading local historians of recent times (Ella MacLean and J.J. MacKay) have talked of Drumdruills as once the site of an ancient village – all trace of which has long since gone.

“There was a clachan at the foot of Cocksburn with a farmhouse Drumdruills closeby”

It was from this village that a headmaster “dominie” drowned himself in a pool in the Cocksburn. The “Dominie Hole” thus became folklore, and J. J. McKay’s father would, on walks through the glen, point it out to his son, rehearsing its truly grim story. The writer finds himself wondering if this dominie was indeed the eponymous MacBeth Rex?

In terms of the ancient village of Drumdruills, its past seems utterly unrecorded, which of course makes its disappearance all the more mysterious. Whatever, as a village, it must have vanished before the early maps of the 16th and 17th century. It is not on Stobies map of 1734. The writer’s view is that this ancient village was more likely to be found on or very near to the site of your present house and it is possible then that when Archibald Wright and Marion Row built it in 1652 they recycled the stones of the old village. However one has to say that is simply conjecture of the writer!

Although there has been a long tussle between three parishes; Logie, Lecropt and Dunblane, it was the latter that carried, at least up until the late 17th century, jurisdiction over Drumdruills. Indeed the running of Drumdruills was it seems very much the personal preserve of the Bishop of Dunblane:

“In 1442 The King, with consent of the Council of Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earls and Barons confirmed to Michael, Bishop of Dunblane, and his successors, all and whole the lands, annual rents and possessions after specified, viz: Civitatem, Dunblanen, Brigend, Cascaplymore…Drumdowlis etc….”
 
“The lands of Drumdruils and Haugheads were held by the Bishop of Dunblane until 1690. They were afterwards held of the Crown for a yearly payment of 16 merks at Whitsunday and Martinmas and the services of a third part of a man and a horse.”

So for at least 250 years life at Drumdruills, its tenants, and productivity were dictated by the Bishop from his splendid palace in Dunblane. It is the writer’s belief that it was during this “reign” that Drumdruills was first planted as an orchard – the distant and long since forgotten predecessor to the Scott Orchard of 1892! There is documentary proof that this orchard survived up until the early 18th century, indeed in 1723 it was said to be the finest in the shire!

This early orchard has been a revelation to the writer (see his opening remarks), only unearthed through research made for the forthcoming talk to the Welsh Trust. Did you know of it? The writer is inclined to believe that his great-great grandfather Robert Scott (1856-1940) had some inkling of it – for he searched long and hard for favourable fruit-growing conditions outside the Clyde Valley. An ancient yet successful orchard, even if long since gone, would have supported his strong feel for Drumdruills.

The only reference the writer has come across to this ancient orchard relates to Sir James Campbell, the Second Laird of Aberuchill and Kilbryde. Sir James, a barrister, was a member of the highest society in Edinburgh, but   was apparently of extravagant habits, and dispersed a considerable portion of the wealth accumulated by his father Sir Colin Campbell (1637-1704.)

In 1723 Sir James’s son and brother jointly urged him to purchase the property of Drumdroulls on the ground that it had:

“One of the best fruit orchards in the shire, both as to kinds and quantities, and also contained a lime quarry of as good lime as ever they had seen.”

The purchase was NOT made, probably because Sir James was in constant need of money, and had not the means to purchase additional lands. In his hands Drumdruills might have suffered a rather different fate, for it seems Sir James Campbell was an inveterate gambler, and although he far preferred the country to the city, he was also a notoriously unreliable figure!"

The photograph shows the two Robert Scotts.

(Source & photograph courtesy of Dr Peter J Gordon, 9 December 2009, and 23 January 2010)