Tour Scotland 4K Summer travel video, with Scottish music, of the Tolbooth Tower and Bruce's Stone on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to Clackmannan, Clackmannanshire. The name of the town refers to the Stone of Mannan, a pre Christian monument which can be seen in the town square, beside the Tollbooth Tower, which dates from the 16th century. The belfry tower, built about 1680, with attached crowstepped gable wall is the surviving west end of the tolbooth which was first built in 1592. It is approximately square in plan and is built of buff-coloured rubble with sandstone dressings and grey off-set quoins, the plain walls rise to a moulded cornice. The roof has an ogival spire surmounted by a weathercock. There is a door on the south wall and rectangular openings at the lower stages with round arched openings at the belfry stage. There are clock faces, probably 19th century in date, on the east and west sides. The gable wall of the tolbooth has strip quoins. The adjacent cross, probably dating from the 17th century has a square stone shaft with chamfered corners. It is tapered at the bottom and has a trefoil capital. The east and west faces of the capital have weathered coats of arms with the chief and saltire of the Bruce of Clackmannan, that on the east still discernible as such. The ball finial is a replacement of 1887. The cross is raised on an octagonal eight-coursed stone base. The second step from the top on the south side is inscribed MMVII. The capstone, thought to date from the third or second millennium BC, was broken in pieces at an early date and bound together with iron rods. It is supported on a massive irregularly shaped whinstone block erected in 1833. Clackmannan Tolbooth was originally erected in 1592, though the belfry tower that is visible today was built around 1680. William Menteith, Sheriff of Clackmannan, presented a petition to Parliament requesting that a Tolbooth be built as he and his predecessors had been obliged to hold courts in the open air and to keep prisoners in his house. An Act was passed on 5 June 1592 which authorised the construction of the Tolbooth and the collection of taxes to pay for it. The west gable wall may have been rebuilt when the tower was erected about a century later. A bell presented by Sir Lawrence Dundas in 1765 was rung each evening until 1939. By 1792 the Tolbooth was said to be a heap of ruins and the main part of it was probably demolished about 1822 when the Clackmannanshire sheriff court was transferred to Alloa. The partial remains of the tolbooth at Clackmannan are of outstanding interest because of their early date. There are no surviving tolbooths of medieval date in Scotland, and only a very few from the last quarter of the 16th century, including the steeples of Crail and Dysart and the complete structures of Canongate and Musselburgh. The Market Cross dates from the 17th century and was donated to the town by Sir Henry Bruce, the Bruces being the superiors of the burgh. The stone is also sometimes referred to as Bruce's Stone or King Robert's Stone. 19th century accounts record a local legend that says when King Robert Bruce was residing at the castle at Clackmanna, he happened to be passing one day on a journey, and stopped for a while at the stone, and, on departing, left his glove on it. His servant was sent back to the clack to fetch his mannan, or glove. The servant said, 'If ye'll just look about ye here, I'll be back wi't directly,' and accordingly soon returned with the missing article. This story explains both the name 'Clackmannan' and the name of the location where the stone is first thought to located, Lookabootye Brae. However, as Clackmannan is recorded from the 12th century onwards, this story cannot explain the derivation of the name. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome.
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