Bridgehaugh Cottage

On 2nd May 1837 an area of 1 acre 35 falls and 12 ells, just over the old bridge, in Bridgehaugh, on the west side of the road north, was feued by Daniel McLachlan, acting on behalf of Cowanes Hospital, to Robert Smith and Thomas Graham.

The first burden on that transaction included –

“…And reserving also power to the patrons to take off from the east side of said lot such a space of ground as they may see necessary for widening the Cornton Road and to the proprietor of lot number two power to make a road of the breadth of twelve feet along the east side of said lot number one betwixt it and the turnpike road for the use of the occupiers of said lot number two and for access to the reserved road…”

This would appear to suggest that the road we now know as Bridgehaugh Road was, at that time, known as Cornton Road.

There were other burdens including the fact that they were bound, within two years of entry, to erect “Suitable Buildings” but no nearer to the parapet wall of the old bridge than ten feet.

It is difficult to determine what the area initially disponed to the two gentlemen was because both Falls and Ells are defined mostly as linear measurements. A square Fall was the equivalent of around 32 square metres and a square Ell just under a square metre. The area was, nonetheless greater than an acre and the ground upon which this house is built is much less that that. We can deduce therefore that Messrs Smith and Graham went about developing the major part of the site and sold off the ground upon which Bridge cottage was built. We can therefore gather from that that the cottage was built sometime after 1839.

The cottage is in fact two storeys high, the lower storey, beneath the footpath level, containing the main living areas and a bedroom.

Curiously, within the “Stirling Council Local Development Plan Supplementary Guidance SG07
June 2014 – Bridgehaugh Conservation Area Character Appraisal” the building is described as – “Bridgehaugh Cottage (fig 13C): traditional single storey stone built cottage”

There were the ususal burdens concerning minerals and trees and so on but nothing shows in the record between that entry and the recent purchase in 2023 apart from the fact that the property was first recorded in the Register in 2004.

Scrutiny of the Valuation Rolls reveal: –

1895-6 The house was owned and occupied by Mrs Catherine Campbell or McIntyre.
1940-41 The house was owned by Archibald McIntyre from Perth and occupied by Alice Spalding.