Jimkabout Mill, two of them?

[Portonian]

Quite correct. Slip of the brain. In addition the feu on the land was only 99 years and the Stenhouse land was freehold so the works were built at Carron......doesn't change the outcome ......well spotted though. Any genealogy info?

[Forfarian]

Just that my several-greats-grandfather Robert Hogg is said to have come from the Borders to work at Carron when it started up, but I have yet to find any documentary evidence to support that.

[hanes teulu]

A CHRONOLOGICAL INDEXof the most remarkable EVENTS AND PERSONS, recorded in ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY with their dates, arranged in an alphabetical order
By John Burn, Teacher of English, Glasgow 1786

Sandwiched between "Caracci, Ital. painter, died 1609, aged 49" and "Carstres, William. prin.coll Edin, died 1715" is the entry
"CARRON - iron manufacture, began 1760"

Wonder when my local steelworks is going to make the list!!

Skoosh - have found a reference to Jinkabout Mill in "State of the process of the division of the common muirs or commonries of Reddingrig and Whitesiderig. Lying in the Shire of Stirling" published 1763

Doesn't answer you original question but might be of interest (have sent PM)

[Skoosh]

Thanks for this stuff Portonian & Hanes. This Meek/Weir combo could be related?
There were of course railways connected to industry in Scotland before the introduction of steam power. The Battle of Prestonpans was fought across just such a horse-drawn railway.

 Burns was unimpressed by his visit to Carron ironworks, from memory,

We camnae here tae view your works that we would be mair wise, but only if we gang tae hell it micht be nae surprise!

Will answer by PM Hanes.

Skoosh.

[RJ_Paton]

The Water of Leith MIll was a Paper Mill - although this extract gives no reason as to why the name was chosen.

From the NLS

REID, John junior printer Edinburgh
Printing House Libberton's Wynd 1699-1719
The second laigh shop below Mary-King's Closs 1705
a little within the Head of Borthwick's Closs over against the Cross-Well on the South Side of the Street July 1712
In Pearson's Closs opposite to the Parliament Closs (a little above the Cross) 1714-20
Possibly a nephew of John Reid fl. 1680-1713. A prolific printer of last dying speeches, ballads and chapbooks. The imprint of A sermon by Mr James Rows 1715 adds after the address 'where are to be sold choice of little books and ballads'. Married Agnes Bowie, widow of John Currie, merchant, 6 September 1696. Started a paper-mill on the Water-of-Leith called Jinkabout 1714. His widow, Agnes Bowie, married Mr Samuel Arnot printer 8 August 1721. 'The printer hereof is removed from Liberton's Wynd, to a little within the Head of Borthwick's Closs, over against the Cross-Well on the South-side of the Street' The Scots Postman 3 July 1712. Plomer has muddied the waters as far as the two John Reids and Margaret Reid are concerned. Watson says that John Reid junior started business in 1699 (History of Printing p.18) but no book of his bearing that date has been found.
Aldis 1904; NLS Impr Ind; Chapbook Printers; Edin Marr; Watson; Waterston 1; Thomson

[Forfarian]

There were of course railways connected to industry in Scotland before the introduction of steam power. The Battle of Prestonpans was fought across just such a horse-drawn railway.

There were indeed. But they were generally used for short distances within an industrial site, and there was certainly no network of such railways that could be used for importing or exporting materials for heavy industry from other parts of the country. Until the 1840s, bulk transport was mainly by canal.

[Skoosh]

There was a horse-drawn railway taking coal from the Monklands to Kirkintilloch and the line occupied subsequently by the steam powered Glasgow to Garnkirk Railway was first opened as a horse-drawn operation carrying Monklands coal into Glasgow avoiding the Monkland Canal monopoly & high prices.

Skoosh.

[Forfarian]

There was a horse-drawn railway taking coal from the Monklands to Kirkintilloch and the line occupied subsequently by the steam powered Glasgow to Garnkirk Railway was first opened as a horse-drawn operation carrying Monklands coal into Glasgow avoiding the Monkland Canal monopoly & high prices.

The earliest part of the Monkland Canal dates from about 1770, after the foundation of the Carron Iron Works, and the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway dates from the 1820s. The Glasgow and Garnkirk Railway was opened in the 1830s.

I am not trying to deny the existence of railways, horse-drawn or otherwise, in Central Scotland before the 1840s, merely pointing out that the Carron Iron Works was founded before any of these railways, and therefore that rail access cannot have been a factor in the selection of the site for the Carron Iron Works.

The canals also postdate the Carron Iron Works; work did not start on the Forth and Clyde Canal until 1768, the Monkland Canal was completed in 1790 or so, and the Union Canal opened in 1822.

[Skoosh]

I'm not referring to Carron in particular which had its own railway system dating from 1760. Nobody knew that steam power would transform land transport and in the meantime coal, iron, lime, bricks, etc' had to be moved where they were needed. The roads were competely unfit for this purpose and horse drawn mineral lines were the solution to this problem. The first horse-drawn passenger line was Kilmarnock to Troon, 1812.
Stephenson himself was an expert on horse-drawn railways, which in England dated back to the mid 1600's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnkirk_and_Glasgow_Railway