A weathered sundial was dug up in the grounds of Carron House Lodge near Carronshore in the 1990s and given to the author who passed it on to Falkirk Museum. It has an ogee top suggesting that it was designed to perch on a crowstepped skew. The vertical slot for the gnomon and the symmetrical layout of the hour lines shows that it faced directly south. The design is most unusual having a hammer down the centre with a crown above. The shaft of the hammer is cut into the dial face and held the gnomon, whilst the head is given extra relief by being set into the cut-back upper half. The hammer has a round peine at one end and a tapering one at the other. This, together with the crown, suggests that it represented the incorporated trade of a coppersmith. To either side of the crown are the incised letters “J L”; and the date 1733 occurs in an oval panel around the hammer shaft.
Illus: Drawing of the Fulderhaugh Sundial.
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It is possible that the sundial was brought in from another location and would be more appropriate in an urban setting of a burgh. However, the tenant of Fulderhaugh, the old name for this part of Carronshore, in the 1730s was John Leishman (John Reid notes forthcoming). As the stone was probably for a skew this would have allowed him to have removed it when he or his family moved away.
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Falkirk Museum 1998-46-1
Falkirk Local History Society 