Edinbellie
Church (18th Century), Country House (16th Century) - (19th Century), Farmstead (19th Century)
Site Name Edinbellie
Classification Church (18th Century), Country House (16th Century) - (19th Century), Farmstead (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Former U.p. Church
Canmore ID 44573
Site Number NS58NE 2
NGR NS 57590 89043
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/44573
- Council Stirling
- Parish Balfron
- Former Region Central
- Former District Stirling
- Former County Stirlingshire
NS58NE 2 57590 89046
The remains of Edinbelly mansion are still in existence (in 1841), and the arms of the Napier family are to be seen on the wall of what was part of the original house.
New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845.
Area NS 5760 8904. No trace of an armorial panel was found during a perambulation of the buildings of Edinbellie farm, and the tenant had no knowledge of such a stone. The present farmhouse does not appear to be of any great age though the barn and outhouses are of earlier date.
Visited by OS (D S) 5 April 1957.
Archibald Napier of Edinbellie, and fourth of Merchiston, belonged to the household of James IV at the commencement of that reign.
M Napier 1834.
The Napiers of Merchiston obtained their lands in Strathendrick in 1509, when Archibald Napier of Merchiston obtained a charter under the Great Seal, incorporating them into a free barony, to be called the Barony of Edinballe Naper. The lands included Edinbelly.
J G Smith 1896.
The present farmhouse partly occupies the site of the U.P. Church extant c.1861 (see 1:2500). It seems likely that the buildings to the NE represent the remains of Edinbellie.
Visited by OS 10 March 1958.
Edinbellie is depicted as a United Presbyterian Church on the OS 1st Edition map (Stirlingshire, sheet XV, 1863).
Information from RCAHMS (HMLB), November 2002.
Field Visit (August 1978)
Edinbellie NS 576 890 NS58NE 2
The remains of the 'mansion-house of Edinbelly' were still standing in 1841. The date of the building is unknown, but Edinbellie was held by the Napier family before the end of the fifteenth century.
RCAHMS 1979, visited August 1978
(NSA, viii, Stirling, 291, OPS 1851-5, i, 40)
Field Visit (12 September 2020)
NS 57590 89043 and NS 58218 88734 The, now vanished, mansion-house at Edinbellie was a home of the Napier family since the early 16th century. The New Statistical Account (vol. VIII, 1845) records that remains of the building were then still in existence and that ‘the arms of the Napier family are to be seen on the wall of what was part of the original house.’ Canmore records a visit by the OS in 1957 and states that they could find no trace of an armorial panel and neither did the tenant have any knowledge of it.
Following information provided by Ms Kim Christie, who currently resides at Edinbellie Farm, a visit was made to the adjacent Wester Ballochearn Farm, which lies approximately 1km to the SE, on 12 September 2020. A barn next to the farmhouse was found to have an armorial stone bearing the arms of the Napier family incorporated into its SW gable end. The panel measures about 0.48m wide x 0.55m high and the top of the panel is some 3m above ground level. Although the detail is worn, the general design is still clearly visible. There is a central shield bearing an engrailed saltire with four roses in the quarters. This is surmounted by a dexter arm, grasping a crescent. These are basic elements of the many historic variations of Napier coats-of-arms. A scallop design fills the space between the shield and the borders of the panel.
The current owner of Wester Ballochearn recalls her husband telling her that the barn was constructed from masonry brought over from the ruins at Edinbellie. The barn also, and somewhat incongruously, incorporates a number of red sandstone corbels, substantial red sandstone lintels and many other large masonry blocks, also likely to have originated from the Edinbellie mansion-house.
Archive: NRHE
Nick Parish
(Source: DES Volume 21)
