St. Helen's Loch
Introduction
The photograph on this page of St. Helen's Loch by Robert Murray as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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St. Helen's Loch
Image: © Robert Murray Taken: 20 Jun 2011
The local Church of Scotland is named St. Helens and perhaps this partly artificial loch took its name from it. A small lochan appears here on William Roy's map of 1752 and also on John Grassom's map of 1817. A greatly enlarged body of water is marked on the First O.S. plan of 1860 (Stirling Sheet XXX.1. and XXX.5. Falkirk parish) as 'Reservoir' and portrays a dam wall on both east and west sides. It also shows a burn running into it from the south and leaving by way of a sluice in the western dam wall. This burn then flows north to supply a dye works, tile works and a corn mill south of the Bonny Water near the then small village of Bonnyridge. We can conclude therefore that the lochan was enlarged to supply industrial demand of the booming years of the nineteenth century.
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Image Location
Latitude
55.995955
Longitude
-3.870365