The Plean Country Park Heritage Trail

3 Aerial view by drone of Aerial view by drone Plean House © Daniel Tetstall Lighthouse on the Bass Rock Quarry face Typical 1| 2| 3| Quarrying of sandstone Quarrying of age of man Plean and the surrounding the Before water have been under water and as the would area hardened over time the sand which remained receded Under the soils of Plean Country to form sandstone. which Park lies part of the Upper Limestone Formation Quarry in Plean. This Blackcraig was extracted from known as Catscraig, in Plean quarry was one of three Craigbeg and Blackcraig. Blackcraig produced to be high considered the Plean White Freestone fine-graded white sandstone. It was one of quality, from the last quarries to close having been worked by 1913. finally abandoned around1841and Blackcraigs was used at The sandstone produced Extension at Plean, to build the School and Church railway, in bridges on the Plean branch of the mineral at Falkirk and Stirling, also in the chief post offices It was Hospital and in Stirling Public Library. Cowane’s and also used in a number of buildings in Glasgow in the Firth Edinburgh and the Bass Rock lighthouse of Forth. 2 1 Welcome to the Welcome Park Plean Country Trail Heritage to the south Plean Country Park is situated immediately of Stirling. of Plean village, some six miles south east 89 hectares Plean Country Park extends to approx. being woodland with the remainder of which 75 are meadows and watercourses. is from The Main entrance into the Country Park which links the route Cadgers Loan, a former Drovers of the park Country Park with Plean village. The south was part of is bounded by the Roman Road which Romans about 2000 built by the a network of roads the main thoroughfare provided years ago. This road of Stirling and Perth. It powerhouses between the regal was the motorway of the day. quarried for Plean Country Park was once an area sandstone and became a working Victorian estate became a landscaped in the early 1800s and later in the significant part of the coal and coke production local area. Plean Country Park Country Plean Trail Heritage www.pleanaudio.co.uk

Designed by www.artisanoption.co.uk This leaflet is intended to help you explore Plean Country Plean Country explore help you to leaflet is intended This trail The Trails. Heritage Stirling the Xplore as part of Park arrows directional and the order out in any carried can be route. only a suggested provide Visit plan your to help you travelinescotland.com Stirling. journey to, in and around Visit way around walkit.com to help you plan your Stirling on foot. Remember to follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code while exploring the Stirling Heritage Trails. This leaflet is one of many produced in partnership with This leaflet is one of many produced the rich and communities to help you explore Stirling’s find them at You’ll varied heritage of our wonderful city. stirlingheritagetrails.co.uk www. Network the Stirling Walking see For led walks in the area at www.activestirling.org.uk Plean Estate Industrial

14 Glen Road Glen Playing Field Playing South Bing South Bing ecology Food for Thought WW1 cooking of Woodland Luckiness Ice House Glen Road Lodge House Ponds Fire Cottage Gardener’s Soakaway Crescent Old Plean 10a 11 11a 12 13 14 15 16 17 Meadows 18 10 Farm Touchhill School Primary Primary East Plean East 15 18 Information Hub Wildlife Ponds Plean Colliery Plean House Gates to the House Plean House kitchen Fast cars and chauffeurs WW1 Trenches Reed Beds © Crown Copyright and Database right 2014. © Crown Survey lic. 100020780 Ordnance All rights reserved. 1 2 2a 3 4 4a 5 Stables 5a 6 Laundry 7 8 9 Quarry 17 13 3 4 Plean House 2

2 12 5 Scan the QR code Scan the QR code or listen online at pleanaudio.co.uk 1 The audio is indicated by this marker 16 6 P 11 P 7 9

10 Cadgers Loan Cadgers 8

N access on your smart-phone. an audio guide which you can each number corresponding to each number corresponding Each board is numbered, with numbered, is Each board information. along the trail to hear more along the trail to hear more Look out for the Audio markers Plean Audio www.pleanaudio.co.uk 4 6 9 10 13 17 7 8

5 14 Victorian Estate William Simpsons is now a residential care home for and used for smelting in the steel industry. An excellent Today’s Estate Hunters together with several Bees are drawn to the blossom of the fruit trees both men and women and provides respite and day example of beehive style coke ovens can still be seen species of Rhododendron in the park some of which have grown there since 1750 - 1799 In the mid Whilst the layout of the Country care facilities. today to the south west of the park and visible from the and Azaleas. These colourful Victorian times. 1750s Robert Haldane Park today resembles that of the Roman Road. specimens can be found within of Gleneagles purchased 1833 - 1922 Plean Estate was owned by the Trustees of former working Victorian estate You can marvel at the dazzling bejewelled Southern the formal plantings around Plean Estate from the William Simpson Asylum and occupied by a variety of Originally there were two distinct settlements, the old the land use has changed to Hawker dragonflies as they hunt up and down the Plean House. Earl of Dunmore and also tenants including the Plean Colliery Company. village which is situated to the east of Plean House, focus upon the conservation drives and lay their eggs in the ponds in the summer. purchased Airthrey Estate depicted on the OS 1860 Plan, and the colliery village of wildlife and the provision of 1922 - 1929 The Trustees, with the agreement of the These are just a few of the fantastic species to as a means of securing of East Plean.The colliery village was built to house the access for the visiting public to Plean Colliery Company, sold the house and grounds One unwelcome introduction be found on your visit to the park where you can the right to vote in parliament. The estate passed families of the mining community working locally. East enjoy. Little can be seen today of the industrial past to Wallace Thorneycroft who was the mine manager is the purple flowered experience something different with the changing of upon his death in 1767 to his nephew George who Plean was developed from the late 19th Century about unless you know where to look. This leaflet provides a and had lived in the house for a number of years. Rhododendron ponticum which the seasons. accrued a mountain of debt which was cleared by half a mile to the north on the A9. By the late 20th guide to the lost heritage and the audio trail can unlock has become a highly invasive the sale of the estate in 1799. 1929 - 1970 Following the relocation of Wallace Century the two had merged to form Plean village. The further secrets of the past. pest not only in Plean Country Thorneycroft to Devon, Plean Estate was then village of Plean now comprises both Old Plean and Plean. 1820 - 1833 This land was then purchased by Francis The estate is still managed for its flora and fauna such Park but in the countryside as a purchased by his relatives brother and sister Tam and Simpson, the son of a clerk of the Carron Company Mining was dirty dangerous work and in order to as the extensive woodland much of which was planted whole. Jessie Thorneycroft who ran the estate until it was sold who amassed his fortune as a ship’s captain with the improve this the Miners’ Welfare Scheme was introduced in the Victorian era. You can still see 15 in 1970 to the National Coal Board. Shortly afterwards The wildflower meadows are also managed to Honourable East India Company. He commissioned providing baths and other facilities for the workers as exotic mature trees such as Giant 18 vandals set fire to the unoccupied house which has encourage our celebrity species which is the Greater the design of the formal Victorian landscape which many of the houses did not have a bathroom and in fact Redwood and Spanish Chestnut been derelict ever since. Butterfly Orchid, Platanthera included Plean House and Stables together with had no indoor toilet. The miners’ accommodation was along the driveways. These were chlorantha which can be seen other associated buildings, which formed Plean known as ‘Rows.’ introduced during the era of in large numbers in June and Estate. Francis had a tragic life losing his first born Coal Mining the Scottish Plant In 1922 twelve men were killed and seven were injured in July. The lovely vanilla aroma child in infancy, then his wife a year after the birth of As well as sandstone below the ground in Plean there an explosion in the No.4 shaft of the colliery. Shortly after released by these plants in his son William, who suffered poor health and died was also a coal seam which was exploited and led to this in 1931 the No.5 shaft was sunk a mile from shaft the evening attracts the moth at the age of 22. In memory of William a home for the opening of many pits all working the upper seams. No.4 in order to increase efficiency by decreasing the species which pollinate the indigent old men known as the William Simpson As this coal was of poor quality the number of pits distance of haulage. By 1959 the demand for coke was flowers. Asylum was founded in the village of Plean where it reduced and Wallace Thorneycroft switched the focus shrinking and the colliery closed in 1962. still stands today. of the business to coke production to be transported 16