Town Hall, Ochil Street, Tillicoultry

The Popular Institute tower stands at the northern edge of Tillicoultry’s town centre, beside Ochil Street in Clackmannanshire. It is the last survivor of a community building demolished in 1986, although the main hall dated from 1859. The tower itself was added in 1878 and listed in the Scottish Buildings category B in 1979. Its square base rises from a quiet residential street where Victorian villas line the pavements. Quadrangular in plan, the walls are made of neatly cut ashlar blocks. The east front carries a carved pointed-arch doorway topped by a small balcony. The tower’s three pointed-arch openings face north, south and east, each framed in plain stone. Above the second storey a bold cornice projects, and on this rest four diminutive corner turrets with tapering stone roofs. A second stage crowns the square shaft, its octagonal belfry housing clock faces on every side. The clock mechanism survives, still wound by hand each week. Inside, a narrow spiral stair leads past small windows to the belfry platform. Visitors reach the site along a short tarmac path from Ochil Street. The tower rises beside a row of modern bungalows, its stonework contrasting with the surrounding pebble-dash walls. From the pavement the full height can be appreciated, from the ground-floor arch to the tiny pinnacles. The clock faces read the same time across the Ochil Hills, marking the town’s quiet rhythm.