Travel and Transport

Meigle has a long history as a strategic transport hub, evolving from an early Pictish settlement and Roman route centre into a 19th-century railway node where various routes intersected.

The village lies on the edge of the Sidlaw Hills and the marshy grounds of the Isla and Dean waters, meaning that ancient trade routes converged on the firmer ground of the settlement. 

In the second half of the 18th century, two turnpike roads were built in Meigle to replace what had previously been rough tracks. These were the Perth to Forfar turnpike, which was joined in Meigle by the turnpike from Dundee; the development of the village was heavily influenced by its location at the convergence of these roads. 

Tollhouses were built to collect the toll for using the new roads, including one at Langlogie and at Checkie Bar, which is where the road from Kirkinch joins the Forfar Road. Sandstone milestones were added along the toll roads, but these were gradually replaced by cast iron mileposts between 1867 and 1901. Examples remain on the Dundee Road in Meigle, at Langlogie and at Balmyle but others have disappeared, some only in recent years.  

A traveller from Meigle to Alyth would have had to use the ferry at Crathie, until a bridge across the River Isla was funded by public subscription and opened in 1821. In the mid-1800s, a new bridge was built across the Dean Water at Cardean but when people continued to use the medieval, so called 'Roman Bridge' in order to avoid paying the toll, the owner of Cardean - Admiral Popham - destroyed the bridge using explosives. When James Cox later bought Cardean, he had the old bridge rebuilt. 

A canal almost came to Meigle at Cardean in the early 1800s when parts of the Dean Water were canalised with the objective of allowing marl from Forfar Loch to be transported by water to the River Isla and so to the Tay and beyond. However, the advent of the railways in the area meant that these plans never came to fruition.  

The railways came to Ardler with the opening of Washington Station on the Newtyle to Coupar Angus branch in 1837. Though there were various stations in the vicinity, there was no station in Meigle itself until the opening of the Alyth branch line in 1861. Meigle Station closed, along with the branch line, on 2 July, 1951.