“Portrait Bust of John MacFarlane of Coneyhill” by Holme Cardwell in the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, Stirling
John Macfarlane was a Stirling man who made his fortune in Manchester in textile manufacture and export, and in property development. He retired in 1845 to Bridge of Allan and bought the Coneyhill Estate, where he feued the ground to build villas.
He used his fortune to promote the arts and education, and was an ardent supporter of every institution that promoted the welfare of the working classes.
He began a Free Library and Reading Room in Stirling in 1854, endowing it with £1900 worth of stocks and shares in railway and gas companies, and provided several thousand of his own books on art, science, history and biography. The Macfarlane Free Library was moved to the Smith in 1881, together with his antiquities collection. In 1904, it was moved again to the new Caregie Library (now Central Library) in Stirling.
He commissioned from Italy and France, a collection of casts of Roman and Grock antiquities, hoping to found a School of Design in Stirling The Stirling School of Art ceased to function in 1875.
In 1843, a Museum Hall was built for the casts in Bridge of Allan.
Macfarlane’s collection of stuffed birds and animals was also exhibited here.
Few had seen the Australian animals he exhibited in 1861, other than as engravings in books. Admission for tourists was a shilling, and for school children, three pence. The Museum Hall was part of Victorian tourism in Bridge of Allan.
In 1886-7, Macfarlane’s Trustees, working with architect William Simpson of Stirling, constracted a grand new Muscum Hall, in the Romanesque style, to house the main collection and provide a grand concert hall for the people of Stirlingshire The museum collection was discarded in 1936, but Museum Hall continued as a focal point for the social and cultural life of the district until its closure, following, subsidence, in 1979 Many famous musicians and orchestras performed there, the Beatles played in Museum Hall 5 Jannary 1963
Currently the building is up for sale for redevelopment as housing, but the Council and the Court of Session require that the facade be retained and restored
Object description
Type: Sculpture
Location: Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum, Stirling
Material: Marble
Artist: Holme Cardwell (1813–1895)
Date: Unknown
Image Details
Date: 29 March 2026
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/33s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of a Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.