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Menstrie Glen - in the Ochil Hills - in Central Scotland

The Menstrie Burn
The Menstrie Burn flows from the Lossburn Reservoir (also known as the Loss Dam), down Menstrie Glen, to the village of Menstrie on the south side of the Ochil Hills. Menstrie Glen lies behind Dumyat, the most westerly of the Ochil Hills and site of a Pictish Fort on its western top. Menstrie Glen separates Dumyat from the Myretoun Hill and the main body of the Ochil Hills. People have lived in Menstrie Glen for thousands of years, but nobody lives there now, although a family named Burns lived at Jerah, near the Loss Dam, into the 1950s. The only farm there now is on the front of Dumyat above Menstrie. That farm used to be called 'Lipney' or 'Foreside of Lipney' - it is now called 'Dumyat'.
 
O' Alva woods are bonny;
Tillicoultry hills are fair;
But when I think o' the bonnie braes o' Menstry,
It makes my heart aye sair.
 
There's Dollar, and Alva, and Tillicoultry,
But the bonnie braes o' Menstrie they bear the gree.
Pictures of Menstrie Glen
Click on the small picture to see the larger version
 
Jerah
 
Looking across Menstrie Glen towards
the top of Dumyat

Menstrie - (Brittonic) Mestryn 1261, Mestry 1315. 'Farmstead in the plain'. - from P-Celtic - 'Maesdref' - hamlet on the plain
Inchna - 'Innis an Adha' - island of the ford - in Menstrie Glen
Loss
- 'leis' - - a cultivated enclosure (Loss Dam & Loss Hill in Menstrie Glen behind Dumyat )
Myretoun
- (English/Old Scots) Boggy farm township
Dumyat - pronounced 'Duh-my-at' - from 'Dùn Maeatea' meaning 'Fort of the Maeatae' ... after a Pictish confederation who fought the Romans. The Maeatae are mentioned by a Roman writer in the early third century. The remains of the Pictish fort are on the western top and archaeologists from Stirling University have investigated it. - OR - the name is from 'Dùn-ma-chit' meaning 'Fort of Good Prospect'.
Dug Linn - a pool in Menstrie Burn above the Washing Linn possibly from 'Dubh Linne' meaning black pool/ OR it may be of Scots derivation and it means 'Dog Pool'.
Washing Linn - In Menstrie Glen - it's the pool before the burn goes into the gorge before Menstrie - it's the first pool you come to coming from Menstrie.
Lipney - from the gaelic 'Lubanach' - a place of curves or bends

 
Menstrie Glen, a farming landscape near Stirling
The hill rises in the form of a sugar loaf. As the manner of breeding Sheep is now introduced into that neighbourhood it is reckoned by proper Judges very fit for that purpose. There is good convenient farmhouses upon the Grounds. The house of Lipney is pleasantly situated upon the south side of the hill immediately above the low ground from whence there is a very fine commanding prospect of a beautiful country and the River of Forth.
Today, Menstrie Glen it is a very empty place, unpopulated but for the sheep, and frequented only by shepherds and hillwalkers.
The settlement remains that have been identified can be grouped under five headings, each reflecting the character of the structural evidence. Firstly, and probably the earliest in date, there are the shielings, each comprising a cluster of stone and turf huts. Secondly, there is a scatter of large turf buildings and byre-houses, the latter almost certainly small farmsteads. Thirdly, there is a series of stone-built farmsteads, their buildings and enclosures arranged in a more-or-less regular plan. Fourthly, there is the relatively grand house and steading at Loss. Finally, there are the shells of several 19th century buildings. At Foreside of Lipney, the only farm to remain in use and now known as Dumyat, the farm buildings were replaced in the 20th century and are still occupied.

From 'Well sheltered and watered' - Menstrie Glen, a farming landscape near Stirling - Royal Commision on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
ISBN 1-902419-25-1

 
 
Fairy Stories...
The wife of the miller of Menstry being very handsome, engaged the affections of some of the 'good neighbours,' or fairies, and was, in consequence, stolen away by them. The unfortunate husband, was much distressed, more particularly when he heard his lost spouse singing from the air the following verse;
O' Alva woods are bonny;
Tillicoultry hills are fair;
But when I think o' the bonnie braes o' Menstry,
It makes my heart aye sair.
This ditty she chaunted every day within his hearing, in a tone of the greatest affection. At length, as he was one day riddling some stuff near the door of his mill, he chanced to use a magical posture; the spell that held his wife in captivity was instantly dissolved, and she dropped down from the air at his feet. (Popular Rhymes of Scotland, by Robert Chambers - p.54. Edinburgh, 1847)
And from nearby Tullibody ....
The wife of the smith of Tullibody, near Menstrie, like the wife of the miller of Menstry, was stolen by the fairies. According to the legend, she was captured in her husbands presence by the malicious abductors, who took her up the chimney, singing as they bore her off:

Deidle linkum dodie --
We've gotten drucken Davie's wife,
The smith of Tullibody!

(Popular Rhymes of Scotland, by Robert Chalmers - p. 105 - Edinburgh, 1847)