Alloa

Ales and Alloa Tables

The Mansfield Arms sits in Sauchie on the edge of Alloa, and it brews its own beer out the back. Devon Ales has been running there since 1992, which makes it the oldest working microbrewery in the Wee County — the local name for Clackmannanshire, Scotland's smallest mainland council area. Four Devon Ales come off three changing hand pumps, alongside the brewery's own craft beers, in a traditional two-bar pub with a lounge and a function suite. The kitchen serves generous plates of classic pub food from noon until nine. One visitor called it a bar "soaked in atmosphere" where "both the patter and ale flow in ample supply." It has been in the Gibson family for four generations.

The rest of the town's drinking is close by. The Royal Oak Hotel, near the town centre and the railway station, does good-value food and runs a quiz on Sunday nights. Crams Bar holds about thirty people and is known for its drinks range and quick service. The Thistle Bar has karaoke on Saturdays. The Old Brewery is a newer arrival, tucked into a retail redevelopment with a mix of old and new fittings inside. For a sit-down meal, Peppés British Restaurant keeps a warm, cosy room.

Gartmorn Dam and the Tower Trail

The walk everyone points you towards is Gartmorn Dam, less than two miles out. The reservoir was built in 1713 to power the coal works and mills, which makes it Scotland's oldest artificial reservoir, and the country park around it now covers 370 acres of water, path and quiet woodland at the southern foot of the Ochil Hills. A flat circuit joins the Devon Way, which follows the line of a former railway. You may see woodpeckers, roe deer, hare, red squirrels and wildfowl. A longer route links the medieval towers — Alloa's own, Clackmannan Tower and Sauchie Tower — and passes the Mansfield Arms on the way.

The Erskines' Tower

Alloa Tower dominates the skyline: a large fifteenth-century tower house, four storeys tall with walls eleven feet thick, the surviving heart of the medieval town. It was the seat of the Erskine family, Earls of Mar, who were granted the lands here around 1360. The National Trust for Scotland has restored it and opens it to visitors.

Beer, Coal and Wool

The town made its money in beer, whisky and wool. Around 1900 some ten breweries were working here, and Alloa ale was shipped to London, the West Indies, Egypt and the Far East. John Paton founded a wool-spinning mill at Kilncraigs in 1814; it later merged into Patons & Baldwins, whose yarns and knitting patterns went everywhere. In 1772 the port exported almost a third of all Scotland's coal. Most of that is gone now — the port closed in 1970, the last big brewery came down for flats and shops — though the surviving Edwardian block at Kilncraigs still stands over the car parks.

Rail Return and a Local Olympian

Trains run hourly from the station, which reopened in 2008 after four decades shut; Stirling is about seven minutes away, with Glasgow and Edinburgh beyond. Duncan Scott, the Olympic swimmer, grew up in the town and learned to swim somewhere within it.