* 1900 years ago the Maetae would have looked south of the River Forth was the Antonine wall and northernmost outpost of the Roman Empire

* 1300 years ago at the end of the “dark ages” those were borderlands between the Picts of the North, the Angles of Lothian in the SE, the North-Welsh Cumbric Britons of Strathclyde in the SW and the Gaels of Dalriada in the West from Ireland in the West spreading Celtic Christianity (St. Columba/Iona)

* 700 years ago Scotland’s national hero and freedom fighter William Wallace defeated the English at the battle of Stirling Bridge just below Dumyat – where today you can see the 151 year old National Wallace monument- and Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn

* 450 years ago you would have met Mary Queen of Scots at Stirling castle

* 300 years ago in October you would have seen the Gaelic Highland clansmen cattle drovers herding 10,000s of Highland cows to the cattle markets in the Scots speaking Lowlands – one of them was Rob Roy MacGregor

* 200 years ago South of the River it was the start of the industrial revolution, James Watt, coal mines, factories and at this narrowest point of Scotland the Forth-Clyde-Union canal was built to connect Edinburg/North Sea with Glasgow/the River River Clyde and the Atlantic Ocean.

* 151 years ago during the Victorian age the 70 metres high National Wallace Monument was inaugurated and has ever since been a top local tourist attraction – this was at the same time when Robert Louis Stevenson – grandson of the lighthouse family – spent his childhood holidays in Bridge of Allan just below Dumyat – he was to become a great writer and composed Kidnapped, Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Hyde

* 50 years ago right below Dumyat students began to study at the UK’s most scenic campus at Stirling University

* 15 years ago the tennis star Andy Murray from Dunblane just below Dumyat rose to international fame