Sundials have a romance about them connected with the shadowy passage of time and the seasons. Pithy mottoes in Latin were seen as intellectual snobbery. There are several examples from the Falkirk area, as well as the odd one in English, such as:

“tempus fugit” (time flies) at Polmont Old Church.
“fugit hora” (the hour flees) on Airth Mercat Cross.
“floret qui vigilat” (he flourishes who watches) at Airth Castle.
“sic transit gloria mundi” (thus passes the glory of this world) also at Airth Castle.
“hora fugit” (the hours fly) on the brass dial of the Airth Castle sundial.
“sic transit gloria mundi” (thus passes the glory of this world) at Kinnaird House I.
“yesterday is past: to-morrow is not thine. Qua redit nescitis horam.” (you do not know the hour of return) Kinnaird II.
“day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge” taken from Psalm 19.2 at Grange House.

Illus 1: The Quarrel or Carronhall Sundial (Fleming 1902).

They have attracted poetry – and two local poems are included in this paper. They also attracted architectural embellishment. A simple sundial can be made from a stick stuck into the ground but by the 17^th century they had become important status symbols and in Scotland the lairds vied with each other for power and perceived importance. The horizontal sundial with its flat face was replaced by ornate freestanding structures with vertical and angled dial faces. The more elaborate the design the higher the status. Scotland has more of these elaborate sundials in this period than any other country in Europe, including the unique obelisk variety such as the example from Carronhall. Compared to those on the Continent the Scottish examples are plain and rely for their decoration, and good taste, on the mathematically precise geometric shapes of the dials.

The church too saw the sundial as a symbol of its Classical inheritance and its place in society. On a more pragmatic level it was essential to have some idea of when to celebrate mass or communion. Its sundials tend to be plainer and mounted on walls. The alignment of the church building was a great help as it meant that a vertical dial was simple to layout and insert into a south-facing wall. The sunny south sides of these churches were always the most important sides and it was here that the more prominent people in society were buried. At Airth the approach to the church was from the north and so the congregation gathered on the sheltered plateau to the south and east before entering. A stone bench was incorporated into the foot of the east gable for this purpose. At both Airth and Polmont the sundials are beside the minister’s external entrance to the pulpit.

The importance of sundials in determining the times of church services is shown by two sundials located on farms to the south of Bonnybridge where the congregation of the nascent Erskine Church met in its early years. At Lochgreen Farm the sundial, dated 1737, is of the usual symmetrical form and is presently built into the north boundary wall of the garden. It is possible that this may have been its original location and that the open-air services were held in this enclosure.

At North Woodend the dial is built into a wall which receives no direct sunlight and has clearly been moved from its original site. The gnomon is set at 45 degrees to the face suggesting that it faced east.

In a world unregulated by clocks and dominated by agriculture the labour force tended to work during the hours of daylight. This meant long summer working days and short winter ones. Merchants needed to have some indication of the time of day for their shipping ventures and markets. Tides were predictable and so it is not surprising to find sundials on the mercat cross at Airth and we can assume that the same was the case at Bo’ness. These market-places were important gathering grounds in their own right, here business transactions and sales were conducted. Starting markets or fairs on time was necessary to prevent forestalling – the buying of goods before the official market opening time, then selling them on at higher prices. It was natural for the emblem of the authority of the market, the mercat cross, to carry a sundial. Unfortunately, the burgh of Airth is the only one in the Falkirk district to preserve its cross – indeed, there are two.

It was only with the foundation of massive industrial concerns such as Carron Company in 1759 that it was necessary for the ordinary workman to have set times of work and by then clocks were available. Again, the church led the way in their introduction – now prominently displayed aloft in the towers so that they could be seen from a considerable distance. Clocks too became a symbol of civic pride and by the beginning of the 19^th century were an essential feature of town halls and tolbooths.

ORIGINAL LOCATION	DATE	TYPE	CURRENT LOCATION
Skaithmuir Tower	c1607	quoin	lost
Falkirk Parish Church	1629	wall	lost
Airth Aisle, Airth Old Parish Church	Early 17th century	wall	in situ
Headless Cross, Airth	Early 17th century	Mercat Cross	in situ
Kerse House	c1642	freestanding	lost
Kersie Mains	c1645	quoin	in situ
Airth Old Parish Church tower	c1647	wall	in situ
Airth	c1650	freestanding	Airth Cemetery
Denny Parish Church	1670	wall	Hallhouse
Callendar House I (summerhouse)	1677	freestanding	lost
Orchardhead	1678	quoin	lost
Carriden House	1682	wall	in situ
Kinnaird House I	1690	freestanding	unknown
Airth Castle terrace	1690	freestanding	lost
Callendar House II	c1695	freestanding	lost
Airth Mercat Cross	1697	Mercat Cross	in situ
Howkerse	1699	freestanding	Howkerse
Carronhall (Letham)	1716	freestanding	Falkirk Museum (fragments)
Lairox	c1722	skew	in situ
Inchyra	1728	freestanding	lost
Fulderhaugh	1733	skew?	Falkirk Museum
Polmont Old Parish Church	1736	wall	Falkirk Museum
Lochgreen Farm	1737	wall	in situ
Woodend Farm	c 1739	wall	in situ
Airth Castle	before 1746	wall	lost
Slamannan Parish Church	mid 18th century	wall	in situ
Main St, Bo’ness	1741	wall	Rebuilt in wall
Cummocksteps	mid 18th century	skew	in situ
Garden Street, Falkirk	1756	freestanding	unknown
Callendar House	1786	wall	lost
Kinnaird II	1792	freestanding	unknown
Russell (Dunmore Park)	c1815	freestanding	Falkirk Museum
Arnotdale (Dollar Park)	1834	wall	in situ
Grange House	c1880	freestanding	New Grange House
Hallhouse II	Late 19th century	freestanding	Hallhouse
Erriden, Arnothill	Late 19th century	freestanding	unknown
Abbots Grange, Zetland Park	1926	freestanding	Falkirk Museum
Denny & Dunipace Cemetery	1926-1938	floral	temporary
Dawson Park School	1937	freestanding	lost
RSNH	1949	freestanding	unknown
Abbotshaugh Community Woodland	c1990	ground	Modified but in situ
Zetland Park	2021	ground	in situ
North Bantaskine		freestanding	Australia

Illus 2: Zetland Park Pavement Dial (courtesy CMC Associates).

Although there was a diminution in the number of new sundials in the early 19^th century their popularity returned by the century’s end; once again as status symbols displaying the good tastes of the newly rich middle classes. Today they are seen as works of art and public engagement with recent sundials installed at Abbotshaugh Community Woodland near Langlees (c1990) and Zetland Park (2021). In these last instances the human user takes the place of the stick or gnomon to cast the shadow.

The list of sundials in the following inventory is divided into the following categories:

I – Churches
II – Mercat crosses
III – Wall-mounted
IV – Quoins
V – Skews
VI – Freestanding
VII – Modern

Several more sundials are indicated on the various editions of the Ordnance Survey maps, but as the indication of their presence seems not to have been systematic – several of those included in this survey are not included – it has not been considered worthwhile recording them here.

David Thomson knew the Wallacestone area very well and in 1898 published his “Memories of Wallacestone, Polmont Parish” in which he mentions that there were three sundials in Redding in his time. Unfortunately he provides no further details, just a poem:

“Another ancient relic here
Still points us to the past;
In Redding village we can trace
Where sunbeam’s rays were cast.

The ruins of the “old house” stand,
Which show two centuries gone;
The old sundial’s hid ‘mongst sand
And heaps of cumbrous stone.”

INVENTORY OF SUNDIALS

I – Churches

II – Mercat crosses

M1: The Headless Cross
M2: Airth Mercat Cross

III – Wall-mounted

IV – Quoins

V – Skews

VI – Freestanding

VII – Modern

The sundials in this section are arranged by approximate date. It is a typically eclectic fusion of styles. The use of new materials such as fireclay, cast iron and concrete revolutionised the production of garden furniture which could be distributed via the railway system. Nowadays garden centres are one of the chief means of propagating this species of structure as focal points in a well-appointed garden.

VIII – Unknown

Newton

According to Armstrong “The remains of an old sun-dial and some sculptured stones are still to be seen lying about near the house” at Newton to the east of Skinflats (Armstrong 1892, 112). Unfortunately, no further information is available.

Bibliography

Armstrong, W.B.	1892	The Bruces of Airth and their Cadets.
Bailey, G.B.	2004	‘The Graveyards of Falkirk District; Part 9 Bothkennar, Calatria 21, 1-46.
Fleming, J.S.	1902	Ancient Castles and Mansions of the Stirling Nobility.
Gibson, J.C.	1908	Lands and Lairds of Larbert and Dunipace Parishes.
MacGibbon & Ross, T.	1887	Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland.
McPherson, W.	1996	‘John Russell, watch and clockmaker of Falkirk,’ Calatria 9, 85-96.
Murray, G.	1887	Records of Falkirk Parish
RCAHMS	1963	Stirlingshire: An inventory of the ancient monuments.
Ross, T.	1890	Ancient sundials of Scotland (with illustrations),’ Proc Soc Antiq Scotland 12, 161-273.
Reid, J	Forthcoming	Notes on the place names of the Falkirk area.
Stevenson, W.B.	1940	Sundials of six Scottish counties, near Glasgow,’ Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, New Series Vol 9, No 4, 227-186.