Mapping Meigle and Ardler

The earliest map covering the Meigle and Ardler area is Roy’s Military Survey of Scotland, produced around 1750. It shows many familiar place names, but the countryside around Meigle appears much as it was before agricultural improvement, with a few enclosures around the main estates surrounded by wide tracts of marshland. 

More than 30 years later, when James Stobie surveyed Perthshire in 1783, that scene had changed. The land had been drained and a new road ran through what had once been marsh. Both maps are fascinating depictions of the area, though not entirely accurate. A notable mistake in Roy’s version is the absence of the village of Meigle itself, which should appear just north of Kirkhill. The original protraction, which can be found in the British Library, shows that Meigle was included in the field survey but was somehow accidentally omitted from the finished map. 

To browse various maps of Meigle and Ardler over time, from Roy’s map to today’s Ordnance Survey, go to the National Library of Scotland interactive online archive