brought from Norway. A year was
spent in the building, and the cost to the King was L40,000. When
complete she was manned by 300 sailors, 120 gunners, and 1000 "men of
warre," besides officers. The dimensions of this leviathan were 240
feet long, 36 feet broad, and the sides 10 feet thick, "so that no
cannon could doe at hir"; "and if any man believes that this schip was
not as we have schowin, latt him pas to the place of Tullibardyne
quhair he will find the breadth and length of hir sett with
hawthorne."[3] Three of these thorn trees were standing in 1837; none
of them exist now. A farmer, to improve his field, rooted them out,
and did his best to fill up the hollow representing the hull; but spite
of these obliterations, the plan of the great ship may be traced yet.

At what date the historic ford was superseded or assisted by a bridge
we cannot tell. Some kind of primitive structure evidently existed
about the year 1700; for in 1703 the Kirk-Session Records minute that
Mr Archibald Moncrieff, the minister, caused his elders to make a
collection throughout the parish, "being that when there came rain that
did raise the waters a great many people were stopt from coming to ye
kirk, and such as came behoved to wead if they wanted horse, which was
very discouraging." Thereafter one James Waddel is commissioned "to
repair the bridge upon Allan, and he is to bring hom some great trees
from ye wood for helping ye same, and over each of ye two streams of ye
water there is to be put four trees, at least three of greater size,
and they are to be covered with fells and sand."

In 1715, being uncomfortably near the Sheriffmuir, Blackford was
seriously disturbed. For four Sundays, between October 23d and
November 27th, the church was closed, and again for eight Sundays
between December 3rd, 1715, and February 5th, 1716. In the latter
interval, as we learn from an account preserved by the Maitland Club,
Blackford was burned to the ground by a party of Highlanders. The
minister "had stayed at home, preached and prayed for King George and
success to his arms, till he was threatened, and parties sent to seize
him from the garrisons of Tullibardine and Braco, upon which he was
forced to retire and shelter himself with some of his well affected
friends." His wife remained, however, and had the presence of mind, so
soon as she learned what had happened, to call for "a trusty servant,
and by force of money and promises preva