Balfron
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Balfron, is a village in Stirling council area, Scotland. It is situated near Endrick Water on the A875 road, 18 miles (29 km) west of Stirling and 16 miles (26 km) north of Glasgow. Although a rural settlement, it lies within commuting distance of Glasgow, and serves as a dormitory town. It has shops, a health centre, a village hall and a secondary school (Balfron High School). The village also contains a fire station, garage, ambulance depot, police station, primary school, bowling green and 18 hole golf course. The residential special school Ballikinrain is also located in Balfron and cater to intervening for boys with special needs from all over Scotland.
The Secondry School (Balfron High School) opened in 2001, replacing a 1960s era building, and was built under the governments PPP Public-private partnership project with the company Jarvis. The Primary school (Balfron Primary School) also benifted in project. Both schools are located in separate buildings on the same campus and is signposted in the village as "Balfron Campus"
The name means 'village of mourning' in Gaelic. This originates from a legend that the village was attacked by wolves, which stole children out of their homes. Modern historians believe that an attack by Vikings was more likely, as they did steal children, Haakon’s Saga and Exchequer Rolls of the time give evidence of a Norse invasion as far as Stirling Castle through the Endrick Valley in 1263 – the same year as the Battle of Largs.
Balfron has an ancient oak – The Clachan Oak – where Wallace is said to have rested and later Rob Roy is supposed to have hidden. Rob Roy’s sons abducted young widow-heiress Jean Key from nearby Edinbellie and forced her to marry Robin Oig MacGregor who was hanged for the crime.
In 1789, when Robert Dunmore built Ballindalloch Cotton Works and a planned village he transformed the village from a hamlet of about 50 to bustling Industrial Revolution village of almost 1000 in a year. Balfron is the birthplace of the architect Alexander 'Greek' Thomson whose father was a bookkeeper at Ballindalloch.
As the cotton boom began to fail, the arrival of the Forth & Clyde Junction Railway transformed Balfron into a popular holiday resort. The plethora of ex-army vehicles after World War I began the village’s connection with buses which still survives today.
Balfron Heritage Group aims to promote the history of the village and parish : preserving the past – protecting the future.
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