Blairingone

Blairingone Gaelic: Blàr nan Con
Perthshire
Blairingone in Winter
Location
Grid reference:	NS984968
Location:	56°9’11"N, 3°38’14"W
Data
Post town:	Dollar
Postcode:	FK14
Dialling code:	01259
Local Government
Council:	Perth and Kinross
Parliamentary constituency:	Ochil and South Perthshire

Blairingone is a village in the parish of Fossoway, Perthshire. It lies on the A977 road at its intersection with Vicar's Bridge Road adjacent to the border with Clackmannanshire, approximately three miles south-east of Dollar. The Arndean agricultural estate lies about one mile to the northeast, near the River Devon.

Schools

Blairingone Primary School is located in Blairingone.

History

"Blairingone" in Gaelic is ; Blàr-na-gobhainn, and the literal translation is " Smithfield" or Field of the Smith. The word "Gobhainn" is derived from Macgowan which is another name for "Blacksmith". Other local derivations of the Gaelic name are ; "Field of Arrows or Field of Spears". All of these are based on the fact that in the Middle Ages and onwards the smiddy in Blairingone was a base for the serious manufacture of weapons of war. The twin forges being maintained by the easily obtained surface coal even then. The field behind the smiddy which was incidentally the site for the recent Lambhill open-cast mine, was the probable source of the coal which fed the forges that sustained this weapons industry. This small settlement and area was historically a base for the winning of many valuable minerals. Materials like Limestone, Alum, Iron-ore, Whinstone & Sulphur as well as coal were mined here on a regular basis. History records that the Fossoway area and over into Fife contained the most ancient coal mining operations in Scotland. During the 1700s a waggonway complex included a track from Blairingone for carrying coal which also connected the North Fife coal fields and the limeburners at Limekilns on the Forth Estuary. The monks from Culross Abbey obtained their coal from this area many years before this, and visiting nuns were accommodated at the still occupied "Ladieshall" on the Vicars Bridge road out of the village. Livestock drovers from the North and South passed through Blairingone on their way to the upper Forth ferry and were often known to take refreshment at one of the three Inns in the village, only one of which is left and was called the 'Devonvale Inn', In recent years renamed The Mart Inn.

References

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