HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; , possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in
Clackmannanshire Clackmannanshire (; ; ), or the County of Clackmannan, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, Council areas of Scotland, council area, registration counties, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland ...
in the
Central Lowlands The Central Lowlands, sometimes called the Midland Valley or Central Valley, is a geologically defined area of relatively low-lying land in southern Scotland. It consists of a rift valley between the Highland Boundary Fault to the north and ...
of
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to be the
River Forth The River Forth is a major river in central Scotland, long, which drains into the North Sea on the east coast of the country. Its drainage basin covers much of Stirlingshire in Scotland's Central Belt. The Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic name for the ...
and becomes the
Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is a firth in Scotland, an inlet of the North Sea that separates Fife to its north and Lothian to its south. Further inland, it becomes the estuary of the River Forth and several other rivers. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate ...
. Alloa is south of the
Ochil Hills The Ochil Hills (; ) is a range of hills in Scotland north of the River Forth, Forth valley bordered by the cities of Stirling, Perth, Scotland, Perth and the towns of Alloa, Kinross, and Auchterarder . The only major roads crossing the hil ...
on the western Fife peninsula, east of
Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...
and west of
Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...
; by water Alloa is from Granton. The town, formerly a
burgh of barony A burgh of barony was a type of Scottish town (burgh). Burghs of barony were distinct from royal burghs, as the title was granted to a landowner who, as a tenant-in-chief, held his estates directly from the crown. (In some cases, they might also ...
, is the administrative centre of Clackmannanshire Council. Historically, the economy relied heavily on trade between
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
and mainland Europe through its port. This became increasingly uncompetitive and the port stopped operating in 1970. The local economy is now centred on retail and leisure since the closure of major industries; only one brewer and one glassmaker survive today. Parochially, Alloa was linked with
Tullibody Tullibody () is a village set in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies north of the River Forth near to the foot of the Ochil Hills within the Forth Valley. The village is southwest of Alva, Clackmannanshire, Alva, northwest of Alloa and ...
. The towns are now distinct, albeit with Lornshill in the middle, and Alloa is about twice the size of its north-western neighbour. The population of Alloa was estimated to be approximately 20,730 residents in 2016.Population of settlements
ClacksWeb Retrieved 16 December 2018.


History

Alloa grew up under the protection of
Alloa Tower Alloa Tower in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, in central Scotland, is an early 14th-century tower house that served as the medieval residence of the Erskine family, later Earls of Mar. Retaining its original timber roof and battlements, the tower is ...
which may have been built before 1300 AD. The name of the town has had different spelling at different periods. In the charter granted by King Robert the Bruce in the year 1315, to Thomas de Erskyne, it is called Alway; in some subsequent ones, Aulway, Auleway; and more recently Alloway. Dr Jamieson stated that the most probable etymology of the name was from Aull Waeg – the way to the sea.


14th century

Sir Robert Erskine was granted the lands of Alloa and its environs in 1368 for services to King David II and he and his descendants were good stewards, developing the estates and innovating.


17th century

One of the earliest maps of the area was made by surveyor and
cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...
John Adair John Adair (January 9, 1757 – May 19, 1840) was an American pioneer, slave trader, soldier, and politician. He was the List of Governors of Kentucky, eighth Governor of Kentucky and represented the state in both the United States House of Re ...
in 1681. Alloa also has a history of persecution of witches.


18th century

John Erskine, the 6th
Earl of Mar There are currently two earldoms of Mar in the Peerage of Scotland, and the title has been created seven times. The first creation of the earldom is currently held by Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar, who is also clan chief of Clan Mar. Th ...
oversaw many far-reaching developments including substantial harbour improvements, a customs house, a "New Town" area of housing, and commissioning the building of the Gartmorn Dam, which was designed by
George Sorocold George Sorocold ( – c. 1738) was an English civil engineer notable for pioneering work on water supplies and hydraulic power systems around Great Britain. Biography Sorocold was born in Lancashire in 1666, the son of James Sorocold and El ...
. Erskine owned many of the coal mines, and Robert Bald, a local mining engineer, was contracted to provide water power from the Gartmorn Dam to operate the mines and other industries. Good water supplies and the availability of barley from the carselands encouraged George Younger to set up a brewery in the 1760s and he was soon followed by others. Alloa became one of Scotland's premier brewing centres. The 6th Earl of Mar was forced to flee the country and forfeit his lands after disastrously backing the Jacobite cause in 1715. However, his brother was allowed to purchase the forfeited lands and future generations continued the tradition of creative industry by launching a glass-works in 1750 and laying one of Scotland's earliest railways (a waggonway) from the
Sauchie Sauchie is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies north of the River Forth and south of the Ochil Hills, within the council area of Clackmannanshire. Sauchie has a population of around 6000 and is located northeast of Alloa and ...
mines to down to the harbour in around 1766. Before 1775, the colliers were attached to the properties in which they were born and were virtual serfs or slaves, supported by the master. After the Colliers and Salters (Scotland) Act 1775 abolished the system, the colliers could move between collieries at will, and they were supported in their needs by the Alloa Colliers' Fund or Friendly Society which was founded in 1775. Traces of the waggonway and the Gartmorn Dam can still be seen today, and although the dam is no longer used for energy production or water supply, it is well used for fishing and leisure purposes. The Clackmannanshire Library was founded at Alloa in 1797 and it contained upwards of 1500 volumes. As the 18th century closed a whisky distillery was established at Carsebridge by John Bald. In the 18th century the staple business of the port was coal with about 50,000 tons a year exported.


19th century

In 1813 the first steamboat started to operate out of Alloa harbour. Rival companies later united into the "Stirling, Alloa and Kincardine Steamboat Company". In 1822 water was brought into the town and in 1828 a gas works was built. While building a road to Alloa Academy in 1828, an ancient burial site was found at Mars Hill, with several finds including two gold armlets.
Alloa Academy Alloa Academy is a six-year state school, state-funded school, serving the town of Alloa in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The pupil intake comes from four "feeder" primary schools, Redwell, Sunnyside, St. Mungo's and Park, and varies from a midd ...
was built in 1824, being paid for by subscription. The Alloa Swing Bridge was opened to the public on 1 October 1885. The population was 5,434 in the 1841 census.


20th century

After the improvements were made to the harbour during the 18th century, Alloa thrived as a
river port An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port. Examples The United States Army Corps of Engineers pub ...
through which the products of
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
manufacture were exported to continental Europe. At that time, and until the 1950s, the main industry to the north and east of the town was coal mining.


Industries


Wool

Wool was also locally plentiful and in the early part of the 19th century, John Paton set up a small yarn-spinning business in the town, later establishing Kilncraigs Mill. Much of the Kilncraigs complex has been demolished but a four-storey Edwardian Baroque block of 1903–1904 survives, with an extension of 1936. The buildings were converted to Council offices by LDN architects in 2003/2004. Patons merged with J. & J. Baldwin of Halifax in 1924 to become Paton & Baldwins Ltd.


Weaving and glass making

The town itself continued to be known for its
weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...
and
glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
making industries well into the 19th and early 20th centuries.


Brewing

Alloa was long associated with the
brewing Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...
industry, with at least nine major breweries producing
ale Ale is a style of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method. In medieval England, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to balance the malt and act as a preservative. Ale ...
s at its height. However industrial decline during the mid to late 20th century has led to the economy relying more on retail and leisure. The first brewing firms in the town were Younger in 1762 and Meiklejohn in 1784. Alloa ale was sent to London and George Younger had an extensive export trade to the
West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
,
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
and the
Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...
. Alloa was also home to Alloa Brewery Co, developing Graham's Golden Lager in 1927 which was renamed Skol in the 1950s. Closures and mergers during the mid-20th century reduced the number of breweries to two and by 1999 after the closure of MacLay's Thistle Brewery, only one remained, the Forth Brewery which became Williams Bros. in 2003.


Malt distilling

In addition to the brewing of beer, Alloa is the site of the former Carsebridge Distillery. According to Alfred Barnard, the Victorian historian of British distilling and brewing, the distillery was founded as a
malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...
distillery by John Bald in 1799. In the 1840s it was converted into a grain distillery and by the time of Barnard's visit in the mid 1880s the distillery covered 10 acres, employed 150 people, and had an annual output of 1.4 to 1.7 million gallons of pure grain whisky. The distillery's owner John Bald and Co was one of five companies that combined to form the Distillers Company Limited in 1877. In 1902, a fire devastated the distillery, after World War I it was refitted and started producing yeast. This yeast production lasted until 1938. In 1956 the distillery was modernised, it expanded in 1966 and in the 1970s a new still house, cooperage and animal feedstuffs plant added. By 1980 the Carsebridge Distillery was the largest grain distillery in Scotland, however it closed in 1983 and was demolished in 1992. One of the distillery's Coffey stills is now in use at the Cameronbridge distillery.


Barrel cooperage

After whisky ceased to be produced at Carsebridge, the cooperage remained as one of two owned by
Diageo Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...
in Scotland. In 2008, 30 people worked there assembling or repairing up to 400 bourbon casks, imported from the US, each day. However, in 2009 the company announced that it intended to close the Carsebridge Cooperage and move the work to nearby Cambus. The new Cambus cooperage was opened in December 2011 by the
Earl of Wessex Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created twice in British history – once in the pre-Norman Conquest, Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In the 6th century AD the region of Wessex ( ...
.


Military history

Alloa is linked to the historic Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders housed at
Stirling Castle Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most historically and architecturally important castles in Scotland. The castle sits atop an Intrusive rock, intrusive Crag and tail, crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill ge ...
. Many of the soldiers in the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
fought under Montgomery at the Battle of El Alamein and Wadi Akrit where their commanding officer Lorne Campbell won a V.C. They were part of the 7th Argylls under the 51st Highland Division.


Police

As of 2014, the temporary national headquarters of
Police Scotland Police Scotland (), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist services of the Scottis ...
is located in Alloa.


Landmarks

Alloa's most famous landmark is the 15th century
Alloa Tower Alloa Tower in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, in central Scotland, is an early 14th-century tower house that served as the medieval residence of the Erskine family, later Earls of Mar. Retaining its original timber roof and battlements, the tower is ...
(
National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland () is a Scottish Building preservation and conservation trusts in the UK, conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organisation in Scotland and describes itself as "the charity that cares for, sha ...
), the surviving part of the ancestral medieval residence of the Erskine family, the Earls of Mar. Despite extensive internal and external alterations, the Tower retains its original medieval wooden roof and battlements, as well as some internal features. It is one of the largest and earliest of Scottish
tower houses A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...
. The town formerly contained a large number of 17th and 18th century buildings, but many were cleared with the expansion of milling operations and later with
slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
in the 20th century. However, Alloa does retain some historic architecture in the form of Alloa Tower, Tobias Bauchop's House at 25 Kirkgate (1695), as well as later buildings such as Inglewood House (), Gean House (1912) and Greenfield House (1892). Carsebridge House, known locally as the Doll's House, was a B-listed two-storey house built around 1799 as part of the plan to establish the Carsebridge Distillery. It survived the demolition of the distillery buildings in the 1990s, but was badly damaged by fire in August 2024. It was illegally demolished in September 2024 without listed-building consent. Alloa Town Hall and Library was designed by the architect
Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known for his designs ...
and built in 1886-9 at a cost of £18,008. The Speirs Centre was built as Alloa's swimming pool in 1895 and was designed by Sir John Burnet of Glasgow. The Sheriff Court is by Brown and Wardrop of 1862–5. Alloa War Memorial (designed 1920 erected 1925) is by Sir Robert Lorimer with sculpture by Pilkington Jackson. The monument to the South African War is also by Lorimer (1904).


Transport

After the closure of the Stirling-Alloa-
Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...
line in 1968 and the Devon Valley Railway in 1973, the town had no passenger railway services for 40 years until 2008. The Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link project was completed in May 2008. The laying of new track had commenced in September 2006 after much preparatory work, including new drainage works and the grouting of a large number of shallow mine workings. The project also involved the construction of a new bypass road, and a bridge which replaced a level crossing in the town. Alloa railway station reopened in May 2008, a short distance east of its former site, just beyond the location of the former junction to the Devon Valley line that served Tillicoultry and Dollar, and also carried through trains to Kinross and Perth.
ScotRail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail (), is a Scottish train operating company that is publicly owned by Scottish Rail Holdings on behalf of the Scottish Government. It has been operating the ScotRail franchise as an operator of las ...
now operates a half-hourly service from Alloa railway station to Glasgow Queen Street via
Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...
, Larbert and Croy between 0641 and 2315 Monday to Saturday and between 1041 and 2141 on Sundays. Passengers can travel to
Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...
, Edinburgh Waverley and
Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
with a change at Stirling, however for journeys to or from Edinburgh passengers with heavy luggage may find it more convenient to change at Larbert, where Edinburgh and Glasgow services use the same platform. The new railway opened for traincrew route learning in early April 2008, followed by the opening to the public on Monday 19 May 2008. This had been preceded by an official opening on 15 May 2008, where '' LNER Gresley K4 61994 The Great Marquess'' hauled four specials to Stirling. The return workings were hauled by Deltic 55022 '' Royal Scots Grey''. Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson officially reopened the line.


Education

Besides the two
high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
s of Lornshill Academy and
Alloa Academy Alloa Academy is a six-year state school, state-funded school, serving the town of Alloa in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The pupil intake comes from four "feeder" primary schools, Redwell, Sunnyside, St. Mungo's and Park, and varies from a midd ...
, the town also has four
primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
s: Sunnyside, Redwell, Park, and St Mungos. In addition to these, the New Struan School is an independently run day and residential school catering for children of both primary and high school ages with autistic spectrum disorders. There is also a OneSchool Global UK that is affiliated to the
Plymouth Brethren Christian Church The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC) (an Australian Public Company Limited by Guarantee, ACN: 158 542 075) also known as Raven Brethren or Taylorites is a Christian denomination currently led by Australian businessman Bruce Hales. The g ...
.


Religious sites

Alloa is currently served by two churches in the
Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...
, namely Alloa Ludgate Church (formed by the union of Alloa North Parish Church and Alloa West Parish Church in 2009 in the building of the former West Church) and St. Mungo's Parish Church. In 1978 the Very Rev Dr Peter Brodie (then minister at St Mungo's) was elected
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week in Edinburgh every year. After chairing the Ass ...
. Four other former St. Mungo's ministers have held this position. Its current minister, the Rev. Sang Y Cha, is the first Korean to be ordained to The Church of Scotland. Alloa is part of the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of Stirling. The
United Free Church of Scotland The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; , ) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and the Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), majority of the 19th-cen ...
has a presence in Alloa through the congregation at Moncrieff United Free Church in Drysdale Street. The congregation is served by the Rev. Jason Lingiah and is part of the Presbytery of East. On Greenside Street, in the old Greenside mission hall (a mission of Moncrieff United Free Church), i
Alloa Elim Pentecostal Church
There are churches of other denominations in the town, including a Baptist church, and St John's Episcopal Church. There are also congregations of
Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...
and
Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...
in Alloa. The Catholic church, also named St Mungo's, is located in Mar Street. The church is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Dunkeld. There is a Musalla on Whins Road in Alloa. Muslims who are unable to attend a mosque can use this space as a place of prayer, worship and education. In 2003 it became open to the public.


Sport

Alloa is home to one professional football club: Alloa Athletic Football Club. The club was formed in 1880 under the name of Alloa but changed to its present-day name of Alloa Athletic in 1881. The team currently play in the
Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association footb ...
, formerly the
Scottish Football League First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. It was replaced by the Scottish Championship. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 in Scottish footb ...
, after being promoted as winners of a play-off with Dunfermline Athletic, the season after being crowned champions of the Scottish Football League Third Division at the end of the 2011–12 season. Their home games are played at Recreation Park in Alloa.


Media

Alloa's oldest newspaper, the ''Alloa Advertiser'', was founded in 1841 as a monthly but in 1855 it became a weekly. Similarly, in 1845, the monthly Clackmannanshire Advertiser became the Alloa Journal. More recently the Wee County News was launched in 1995 but went into liquidation in 2011. Some footage of a woollen mill and glassworks exists on film. River Forth (1956) B&W silent 15 mins.


Notable people from Alloa

* David Allan, 18th century painter and illustrator * Robert Bald, mining engineer * Thomas Bowie, cricketer *
George Brown George Brown may refer to: Arts and entertainment * George Loring Brown (1814–1889), American landscape painter * George Douglas Brown (1869–1902), Scottish novelist * George Williams Brown (1894–1963), Canadian historian and editor * Ge ...
,
Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...
and founder of ''
The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' newspaper * John Crawford Buchan, recipient of the
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...
* John Ferguson (chemist) *
Robert Fyfe Robert Douglas Fyfe (25 September 1930 – 15 September 2021) was a Scottish actor, best known for his role as List of Last of the Summer Wine characters#Other regular characters, Howard in the long-running British sitcom ''Last of the Summer ...
, actor *
James Sligo Jameson James Sligo Jameson (17 August 1856 – 17 August 1888) was a Scottish naturalist and traveller in Africa. He identified the black honey-buzzard in 1877. Jameson's antpecker, Jameson's firefinch, and Jameson's wattle-eye are named after him ...
, explorer * Archibald MacLaren, gymnast and educator * Andrew Norman Meldrum, scientist * John Melvin (Scottish architect) *Lord Charles Forte, hotelier and caterer *
Duncan Scott (swimmer) Duncan William MacNaughton Scott (born 6 May 1997) is a Scottish swimmer representing Great Britain at the FINA World Aquatics Championships, LEN European Aquatics Championships, European Games and the Olympic Games, and Scotland at the Common ...
, grew up in Alloa * Douglas Robert Brown cricketer, schooled and spent his youth in Alloa * John Jameson, distiller, founder of Jameson Irish Whiskey and great grandfather of
Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess of Marconi ( ; ; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegraphy, wireless tel ...
* James Smith architect in west Scotland * David Wilson, Baron Wilson of Tillyorn, British Colonial administrator, 26th Governor of Hong Kong and retired politician


See also

*
List of places in Clackmannanshire The article is a list of links for any town, village and hamlet (place), hamlet in the Clackmannanshire Council areas of Scotland, council area of Scotland. __NOTOC__ A *Alloa, Alloa railway station, Alloa Tower *Alloa Inch *Alva, Clack ...
* Alloa witches * Margaret Duchill


References and sources

;References ;Sources * "Alloa and its Environs: A descriptive and Historical Sketch", Alloa Advertiser, 1861


External links


Alloa Community Web Site

Alloa Library

Alloa Tower

Lys Hansen's ''Daily Bread'' exhibition

Alloa Ludgate Church
* A collection o

from the 1580s onward at
National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS; ; ) is one of Scotland's National Collections. It is one of the largest libraries in the United Kingdom. As well as a public programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours, the National Library of ...

Engraving of Alloa in 1693
by John Slezer at National Library of Scotland
ClacksNet – Clackmannanshire's Community Network


{{Authority control County towns in Scotland Towns in Clackmannanshire Burghs Parishes in Clackmannanshire