Loanhead Cottage

SMR 1300 / NS 8441 7219

Loanhead was a farm to the west of Slamannan on the road between Townhead and Southfield.  The 1860 Ordnance Survey map shows it as a long narrow building parallel with the road.  Two gin mills are represented indicating that it was a working farm.

The dwelling, now known as Loanhead Cottage, occupies the eastern end of the main building. The chimney on the east gable bears the date 1829, the whole inscription reading “1829DL” on a raised panel. A recess in one of the rooms here contains a stone basin which is traditionally said to have come from Slamannan Parish Church.

Bibliography

RCAHMS	1963	Stirlingshire: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments. (Quoted Below)
Waugh, J	1977	Slamannan Parish through the Changing Years.

• “Carved Stones, Loanhead. Loanhead Cottage, as it now stands, represents a recent reconstruction of part of a row of cottages, the other end of which stands roofless; the date 1829 appearing on a chimney is presumably that of their construction. In the N. side there is an outshot with a window in its centre; the lintel of this window, evidently in secondary use, has borne an inscription, no doubt initials and a date, but only the final figures 70 are now legible. Inside the outshot, in its W. wall, there is a recess 1ft. 8in. wide across the front, 1ft 2.5in. deep, and rhomboidal on plan. Its floor is formed by a stone hollowed out to form a circular basin 2in. deep, the rounded front of which projects 2in. from the face of the wall. Running back into the inner side of the stone from the bottom of the basin, with which it is flush in the centre, there is a slot three-quarters of an inch wide; this ends in a small hole which gives into the wall behind in the manner of a drain. Nothing is known as to the origin or purpose of the stone but, like the lintel, it has probably been rest here for preservation. 844721 NS 87 SW 10 April 1954.” [p.405]

G.B. Bailey, 2025