Forestmill

Forestmill Sign

Forestmill is a small hamlet in the county of Clackmannanshire, Scotland. It is situated on the A977 road between Kincardine and Kinross.

The Black Devon river runs past it towards the town of Clackmannan. One feature on the river at Forestmill is a horseshoe weir. This was built in 1711 by celebrated engineer George Sorocold to direct water from the river through a sluice into the mill lade that once fed into the Gartmorn Dam reservoir. The weir was added to the schedule of British listed monuments in 1972.

The relatively nearby to the south, Forestmill railway station served the hamlet from 1850 to 1930. The Scottish poet Michael Bruce taught at the primary school for several months before his death by consumption (tuberculosis) in 1767 aged 21.

The hamlet has expanded here and there over the years, and is expected to become larger still in future, with plans for new build housing in the area.

The main street

There was once a Scout Hut or similar style small hall building located just opposite Forestmill's main street on the A977 on a parcel of land beside the wood to the south of the settlement. The trees of the wood have recently been felled, but this parcel has become overgrown.

Old Hall Location

In the Clackmannanshire Name Books, Volume 3 (1861-62), Forestmill was described thus:

"A small village or hamlet, the houses of which, with the exception of one two storey slated building, are all one storey, tiled, and in good repair. There are in it a School, one public house, one small grocer shop, a smithy, two saw mills and a corn mill. To the latter is attached one of the sawmills, both worked by water. The sawmill on the south side of the Black Devon is worked by steam of ten horse power. The name is derived from the circumstance of a corn mill having been here long before any of the other houses. Property of the Earl of Mar."