Rackmill, Lade and Bridge over River Devon

The bridge at the Rackmill dates from 1929. It replaced a metal bridge capable of taking one way traffic. Before that there was a series of wooden foot bridges constantly damaged by floods. Watson states, however, there was a stone bridge destroyed some years before 1792, the Tillicoultry Account confirming that “an uncommon flood happened in September 1785, which carried away a prodigious quantity of corn, broke down a stone bridge at the Rack mill in Dollar, occasioned other very and extraordinary damage”. The surviving keystone and other parts were at one time stored at Gateside. It bridged the river opposite to where a chimney was built in 1852, presumably across from where the Stey Brae comes down from Sheardale, there being no road down from Dollarbeg in 1785. Watson also states that before this bridge there was a custom of stilting over the river on suitably cut branches, these being left on either bank. Flooding must have been frequent, the Academy running a school at Sheardale for many years to save the children crossing the Devon. Old photographs reveal cottages on the left-hand side at the bend of the turn up the brae as well as the original “rack” or ford that gave the mill its alternative name to that of being the “milne of Dollarbeg”.

Across the ford the old road struck right along the bank of the Devon until it reached the mouth of the Dollar Burn. The present caravan park occupies the site of an extensive bleach works started by the Haigs of Dollarfield in 1783. These were later used as a saw-mill. The field to the west of the bridge was the actual bleachfield. A mill lade follows the line of trees here and the barn-like building was once part of the works. The original road followed the Devon bank until it reached the mouth of the burn then followed the west bank of the burn crossing it before the railway bridge and continuing up the east bank to Dollar. On the present Devon Road the farm on the right is Dollarfield, the former and larger house being destroyed by fire in 1940. The Haig family who occupied it were members of a well-known local clan, kin to the Haigs of Bemersyde on the Borders. A road to the left leads to the little hamlet of Lower Mains which centred round a farm of that name. A rise of several feet in the road before reaching this junction indicates the ridge of the hundred-feet raised beach of post-glacial. times. An extensive arm of the sea once reached here from the Forth. A large brick and tile works to the north of Lower Mains took advantage of the clay deposit last century. Later used as a slaughterhouse the site is now buried under the town’s rubbish. Stobie’s map indicates a small mansion house at the Lower Mains.