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The first mention of the place known as Raploch was recorded during the reign of James I in the 15th century. The site had witnessed several notable moments in Scottish history, the most significant on 11 September 1297, when a Scottish army, led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray, defeated the English army led by the Earl of Surrey at Stirling Bridge.
There are various interpretations of the name, including one meaning "place of the archer" or archery area. It has also been suggested that the name derives from the large pond or lochan which had formed beneath Stirling Castle.
From the 1780s, the area was witness to a significant influx of population from both the Highland clearances and, later, the Irish famines. Indeed a census taken around the middle of the 19th century tells us that there was a large population of native Irish people living in Raploch at the time.
At the turn of the 20th century, Raploch Village was home to a wide mix of professions and several nationalities. In 1919, Stirling Council began a large house building programme to accommodate families from the Top of the Town. Phase two of this programme was halted in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II. Phase three began at the start of the 1950s and completed the change that had begun 40 years before.
Raploch Information
(by Elspeth King, Stirling Smith Art Galley and Museum)
The Raploch Quarry was first opened in the eighteenth century. Situated at the foot of the Castle Rock on the north-west side, it was the source of the fine sandstone from which the Stirling Smith, and many other Victorian buildings in the King’s Park, Bridge of Allan and Dunblane areas, were built.
Raploch Quarry was filled in with Stirling’s refuse in the early 1940s. In 1965, the present Stirling Fire Station was built there and accommodates the official helicopter landing pad for the area. This is often used by royal visitors, and on occasion, for transferring mountain rescue casualties to Stirling Royal Infirmary.
The Concise Scots Dictionary (Aberdeen University Press, 1985) defines the word Raploch as grey coarse, homespun, undyed woollen cloth, or a garment made from this. The adjective denotes something which is coarse, homespun or undyed, or ordinary, undistinguished, crude, but necessary and serviceable. In the sixteenth century, "Raploch" was the word used to describe the everyday clothing of the Scottish people. The "unmaist claith of Raploch gray (sic.)" was the grey woollen overcoat of the Poor Man in Sir David Lindsay’s play, The Satire of the Three Estates (1540) and such a garment was commonly forfeited to the Church as part of death duties if money or animals were not available.
The Raploch was thus the service area for Stirling Castle. In the time of King James IV, the royal washerwomen lived there.
In the early years of the twentieth century, the former Raploch quarry area flooded, providing a picturesque view favoured by many producers of postcards. The small farming settlement at the foot of Ballengeich Road, shown here, is part of the original Raploch village as listed in the 1893 Ordnance Gazetteer Scotland, edited by Francis H. Groome.
The Ballengeich Road is the steep roadway which winds down the north side of the Castle Rock, providing a secondary exit from Stirling Castle. James V was popularly known as "the Gude Man (i.e. farmer) of Ballengeich" as he had the habit of going out of the Castle, in disguise, to mix with ordinary people and there are many tales of his escapades. A chair used by James V, when posing as the Gude Man of Ballengeich, is in the Smith collections.
Apart from being the Castle back door and service area, Raploch was also a weaving village and fishing settlement. Indeed, the first planned housing scheme, Fisher’s Row, was established there in 1693 by Stirling Burgh to give encouragement to the fishing industry on the Forth.
The quarry was drained for reasons of safety and hygiene, and during the Second World War, it was filled with household refuse. It then became the Quarry Park, and was for many years used as a track for harness racing, a sport favoured by the Romany community, who often camped in this area. Stirling Fire Station was later built on the site, and the trotting track moved to Corbiewood near Bannockburn, where it flourishes still.
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