Two sundials are recorded at Kinnaird by Fleming and the RCAHMS – though their present whereabouts is not known.
The older sundial stood on a modern pedestal in the re-entrant angle of the eastern block of offices. It was of the cubical type, with a decorative finial, but lacked its vances in 1954. It measured 2ft 4ins in height by 1ft 8ins across each face. One face bore the date 1690 and the opposite one a shield charged: for Bruce of Kinnaird: a saltire; on a chief, in the dexter corner, a mullet. Above the shield appeared the motto “SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI” (Thus passes the glory of this world). The sundial was presumably erected by Alexander Bruce of Kinnaird, who owned the estate in the second half of the 17th century.
According to Fleming the second sundial was erected in the garden by the Abyssinian Traveller and bore the date, 22nd June, 1792, and the inscription – “YESTERDAY IS PAST: TO-MORROW IS NOT THINE. Qua redit nescitis horam.” (you do not know the hour of return) (Fleming 1902, 227-231).
Sites & Monuments Record
Kinnaird House Sundial SMR 1424
Falkirk Local History Society 