Old Doune Road
Start location: junction of Springfield Terrace and Old Doune Road, Dunblane (NN 779 011)
End location: Hill House, A820 (NN 746 010)
Geographical area: Stirling, Clackmannan and Falkirk
Path Type: Rural Path
Path distance: 3.5km
Accessibility info: Suitable for pedestrians
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Route DescriptionThe route begins at Springfield Terrace following the residential street still called Old Doune Road out of Dunblane and crosses the Dunblane Bypass (A9) by the footbridge. The made-up road is followed to Greenyards, where it becomes a rutted track. There are no gates obstructing access between Greenyards and Glenhead. At the Glenhead Cottage junction there is a timber signpost with two arms directed east and west along the Old Doune Road. From here head west through a metal pedestrian gate along the north side of the cottage garden, between the garden fence and a field fence. There is a small dog-leg in the track where there is a further pedestrian gate and then a third gate where the garden ends and the track opens out into a wide field edge grassy strip. The route runs west along this strip until a wood is reached to the south of the track. By the wood a pedestrian gate gives access to the next stretch of the Old Doune Road, a wide strip fairly overgrown between the wood boundary fence and the field boundary fence to the north. This strip continues west - passing at NN750010 the start of another right of way heading south - heading towards the modern road (A82) to Doune. The western end of the Old Doune Road is readily visible as there is a signpost reading "Footpath to Dunblane via Old Doune Road 3".
Landranger 57 (Stirling & The Trossachs area)
Heritage Information
This was once the main route into Dunblane and, as such, would have seen a lot of traffic. The hedges either side of the road denote its former width. It's very interesting to look at the old road on a map and see just how directly it went into the centre of Dunblane. These days this old route remains useful. As well as being a right of way, it is part of Stirling Council's core paths network and part of it is used by the National Cycle Network's route 765.
There is a bridge on the path replacing Murdoch’s Ford where King Robert II’s grandson, Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany, was captured by English forces in 1402.
Even though the old road joins the new one at Hill House, it does not seem to have continued on the same line as the remnants of old culverts were found on the field boundary to the west of where the old road now ends. This field boundary line can be followed as far as the sharp bend on the B824, beyond which the old road is lost although it is said to be sometimes visible as a stone scatter after ploughing. Ultimately it reached Doune by crossing the Ardoch Burn by a ford where the Old Ardoch Bridge stands today.
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