Stirling Brewery

Business: Peter Burden

Location: Stirling

Type: Brewery

There was a long association with brewing in St Mary's Wynd and it is believed that there was a malt barn on the site of what became the Stirling Brewery as far back as 1688, which was owned by a Mr Christison, a maltman and burgess of Stirling.

This subsequently passed into the hands of Alexander Abercromby of Tullibody who was the owner of the nearby Black Bull Inn, and the associated brewhouse was eventually taken on by Peter Burden in 1795, who had married into the Abercromby family.

The Stirling Brewery, also referred to as Burden's Brewery, gradually expanded to become an extensive complex of buildings at the top of Irvine Place, with water being drawn from wells sunk on the premises.

The business passed through several generations of the Burden family and was finally converted into a limited company - Peter Burden Ltd - in 1925. However, this enterprise only lasted a short while, and brewing in Stirling came to an end in 1931. The brewery was offered for sale the following year.

Most of the site is now occupied by modern housing, but a malt house and kiln still survive, and are now used as a scout troop hall.