Guide to the Clackmannanshire Tower Trail, Scotland

Barry Pickard
Jan 8
7 min read

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Author: Barry Pickard

Hi, I'm Barry, the owner of Tailor-Made Itineraries and I have been designing bespoke self-guided tours for adventurous and curious travellers since 2015. I am a history graduate with a passion for travel.

I created this blog to show, through my own adventures, how you can have an incredible travel experience as an independent traveller, giving you the information to navigate the world with confidence.

Can you visit five medieval Scottish towers in one afternoon? Standing at the base of Castle Campbell, perched high in Dollar Glen with streams rushing through the valley below, I realised we'd just answered that question – and discovered one of Scotland's best-kept secrets in the process.

The damp earth smell of the Ochil Hills mingles with mossy stone as you approach these ancient fortifications. At Clackmannan Tower, you'll hear crows calling from the battlements while the Firth of Forth stretches out below like hammered silver. The creak of wooden floors echoes through Alloa Tower's cavernous rooms, and you can almost hear the footsteps of the Erskine family who once guarded royal Stuart children within these thick walls.

I'm Barry, a history graduate who's been designing self-guided tours since 2015, and I'll admit – I'd driven past Clackmannanshire dozens of times without giving it a second thought. But when I stumbled across information about the Clackmannanshire Tower Trail, something clicked. Five medieval towers, all within a compact region, each with its own story about Scotland's nobility jockeying for position near the Royal Court? That sounded like exactly the kind of off-the-beaten-path adventure I'd want to tackle myself. Towers were built all over Scotland during the late 14th and 15th centuries. They were thick walled, high residences for the nobility. This was a more peaceful time for Scotland, so a full castle structure was not so necessary. The prevalence of five towers, in a relatively small area of Scotland, has much to do with location – it was an ideal base for the nobility to be close to the Royal Court, initially when it was based at Stirling Castle, then latterly when in Edinburgh.

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If you're looking for a proper Scottish castle experience without the tour bus crowds, or you're trying to work out whether you can realistically see all five towers in one day, you've landed in the right place. I'll walk you through exactly how we navigated this trail, from the logistics of parking to which towers you can actually enter versus which ones you'll view from the outside. This is based on our six-hour circuit through Clackmannanshire by car, complete with a coffee stop that turned out to be one of the day's highlights. You'll get the practical details you need, the historical context that makes these buildings fascinating, and the honest assessment of what's worth your time.

Don’t forget that Tailor-Made Itineraries delights in creating bespoke self-guided tours. So, if visiting any of these castles appeals to you, reach out to me by email. I would be more than happy to design a self-guided tour around your requirements incorporating the castles of Clackmananshire, or indeed, a general tour of Scotland.

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Sauchie Tower

Our first stop was Sauchie Tower, which was built between 1430 and 1440 by Sir James Schaw, who was ‘Comptroller to the King’. Unfortunately, the tower fell into disuse in the 1700s following a fire, and today the tower is boarded up and closed to visitors, but it is still an interesting sight.

We then moved on to Clackmannan Tower, which is also closed. It is more impressive that Sauchie Tower, and has a good view over the Forth estuary, standing as it does on King’s Seat Hill. We parked on the High Street and took a two minute walk through farmer’s fields to get to the tower. Had we had a bit more time, Clackmannan High Street seemed quite a nice, historic, area to walk around.

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Sauchie Tower, Clackmannanshire, Scotland

Clackmannan Tower

King David II, son of Robert the Bruce, granted Clackmannan to his kinsman Sir Robert Bruce in 1359. The earliest part of the existing Clackmannan Tower seems to date from this period. Clackmannan remained occupied by the Bruces until the late 1700s. By the end of that century the mansion and tower were abandoned, and the mansion was demolished in the early 1800s.

Alloa Tower

A ten minute drive then took us to Alloa Tower. It is worth noting that Google Maps will try taking you to the front of the tower, but the carpark is actually down a different road. The carpark is well signposted though, and is only a two minute walk from the building.

Alloa Tower’s location was important, because it guarded one of the strategically important ferry crossings over the nearby River Forth. The tower is an impressive building, being the largest surviving keep in Scotland, and was the ancestral home of the Erskines, guardians of the Stuart royal children. Over the years, the tower has lost its attached manor house to fire, as well as what must have been impressive gardens to redevelopment. Despite this, Alloa Tower is still worth visiting for its panoramic views over the Forth valley.

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Menstrie Castle

Next up was a quick visit to Menstrie Castle. Don’t let the reference to castle fool you, as it is more like a small mansion house. It is also to be found surrounded by a housing estate, which is a bit off putting! There are only four small rooms (watch your head if you are tall!), with an exhibition on Nova Scotia, Canada, which was granted to Sir William Alexander. It was the Alexander family who built the house in 1560, and William was born at Menstrie Castle in 1577.

Café at no. 44

By now, we were feeling like we could do with a coffee, so we headed to the small town of Dollar, which is the location of Castle Campbell. We checked out the options along the main thoroughfare of Bridge Street and made what turned out to be a great choice, visiting Café at no. 44. We chose the cappuccino and the hot chocolate, and a rocky road cake. Shear bliss! We can thoroughly recommend the café for its food and drink, service and quirky surroundings.

Castle Campbell

The final stop on the trail for us was Castle Campbell, and we had certainly saved the best till last. The view from the castle is quite breath-taking, with the stronghold being sited up Dollar Glen, a step valley in the Ochil Hills. Although much of the castle was ruined, there was still plenty to see and the castle tower was still intact, and it was easy to imagine how impressive this castle would have been.

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There are three options for getting to the castle. For those adventurous souls, looking for a strenuous, scenic walk up the valley, park at the small Dollar Museum, then take the trail. Alternatively, continue on and take Castle Road. Leave the car at the first carpark for a thigh burning walk up the road, or drive up to the next, smaller carpark (which can get full quickly), from where you take a ten minute walk, on a good track, through the valley.

While walking along the track, you will see some other trails branching off which go further up Dollar Glen along the Burn of Care and the Burn of Sorrow (burn is a Scottish word for a stream). We didn’t have time to do these trails, but one of them leads to what is meant to be a beautiful little waterfall. One for another time perhaps!

Originally known as Castle Glume, the stone fortress dates from the early 1400s. Around 1465, it passed through marriage to Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll. The execution of the 8th Earl in 1661 effectively ended the castle’s days as a noble residence. A magnificent old sycamore called the Maiden Tree looms over the castle entrance. The origins of the name are lost to history, but local tradition claims a princess was once banished to ‘Castle Gloom’ for falling in love below her station.

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Conclusion

The Clackmannanshire Tower Trail gave us exactly what we were after – a proper Scottish castle adventure without the crowds, right in our own backyard. From Sauchie Tower's boarded-up mystery to Castle Campbell's dramatic perch in Dollar Glen, these five fortifications tell the story of Scotland's nobility in a way that the famous tourist castles sometimes can't. It's doable in six hours with your own transport, rewarding for history enthusiasts and independent travellers who prefer discovering places off the typical tourist circuit, and surprisingly varied in what each site offers. If you're spending time in central Scotland and fancy something different from the usual Stirling-Edinburgh route, this trail delivers.