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, a new road ran through what had once been marsh, and Kirkhill had been renamed Belmont.

Both maps are fascinating depictions of the area, though not entirely accurate. 

Roy's map is very detailed, but a notable mistake is the absence of the village of Meigle itself, which should appear just north of Kirkhill. The original protraction (pictured left) which can be found in the British Library, shows that Meigle was included in the field survey but the village was somehow accidentally omitted from the finished map. 

The first Ordnance Survey map of the area was produced in 1860, with Ardler appearing under its’ original name of Washington and the railways featuring prominently.

Finally, for a bit of fun, here’s Meigle and Ardler in the iconic London Underground format