Fascinating Facts about Balfron

Fascinating facts

Balfron

The village name "bail'-a-bhroin", Balfron, means the town of mourning.

Famous resident

The architect Alexander (Greek) Thomson was a native of Balfron.

700 years old

The first documentary reference to Balfron - one of the charters of the Abbey of Inchaffray - in 1303 alludes to the village as Buthbren and only later as Balfron.

All lit up

The village claims to be Scotland's first gaslit town.

Glasgow visitors

The village was once a popular tourist resort where people came to spend their 'fresh-air fortnight'

Star Wars

The residents of Balfron, share their village name with a well-known Star Wars planet.

The fictional Balfron is an unwelcoming place inhabited by cave-dwelling folk and is also where Lando Calrissian met up with twin con artists, the Tonnika sisters after he met them at the High Stakes Casino.

The Lennox

Balfron was in The Presbytery of Dumbarton, which was formed out of the rural deanery of Lennox, as described in a charter by Robert the Bruce in 1321. Read more...

Abduction

In the year 1750 Rob Roy‘s son carried off Jean Kay, then a widow and heiress of Edinbellie, and Rob Oig, the youngest, who had married her, was hanged in Edinburgh three years afterwards on account of her abduction.

Logarithms

John Napier, the inventor of logarithms, was born here in Balfron in 1550.

Fire Brigade

The village has one retained pump.

A history can be found by clicking here...

Balfron coins and notes

There was a time when Balfron issued its own currency. Click here for the story.