Cambus is one of the smaller villages in Clackmannanshire. It is located to the south of Tullibody, to the northwest of Alloa, and about 4 miles east of Stirling. It lies on a bend of the river Devon, near its confluence with the River Forth.
In 1806 John Moubray converted a disused mill into a malt distillery. It operated as a small plant until 1836 when Moubray installed two Stein patent stills to distil grain whisky instead. Cambus Distillery was run as a family business for most of the 19th century, passing down to John’s son (James) and grandson (Robert), who installed a Coffey still in 1851.
In 1877 it became one of the founding companies of Distillers Company Limited (DCL), which went on to acquire the adjacent Cambus Old Brewery in 1882 to allow for further expansion. The distillery was closed down in 1993.
The West Cambus sawmill on the left bank is known to have been occupied by the wood merchant William Mitchell in the 1890s.
Cambus Ordnance Survey map 1862
The Cambus Iron Bridge over the Devon was constructed in the early 19th century to span the river Devon and link with the distillery founded in 1806. It is a Category A listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Cambus Iron Bridge - March 2022
Brewer Robert Knox started out in Tullibody around 1786 and had moved to Cambus by 1792, to make use of water transport links for importing supplies and distributing its finished products. Robert Knox (Cambus) Ltd opened The Forth Brewery on a larger site in Cambus in 1866, this one located to make use of the new local railway connections. The company and brewery were bought by Alloa Brewer Blair & Co. Ltd in September 1954 and the brewery was closed in 1955.
In 1958 the Forth Brewery site was converted into the Strathmore Distillery, specialising in the production of lowland malt. The brewery buildings were demolished in the 1980's. The land currently being used as a car park.
From the early 1850s until 1968, Cambus was served by passenger trains of the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway. The station was to the west of the level crossing on station road into the village, and had a large signal box, which controlled two level crossings, the junction with the line to Menstrie and Alva, and access to sidings in the Forth brewery and Cambus distillery. The line was re-opened in simplified form in 2008 as part of the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail link. The new railway has a passing loop to the east of the road into Cambus village, but no station has been built at this point in time.
Magnus Pyke is one former resident of note, who lived in Cambus while he was working for the Distillers Company (DCL). From 1949 he worked as the deputy manager of the yeast research division at Glenochil Research Station, Clackmannanshire. In 1955 he became manager, retiring in 1973. He featured on television and radio programmes from 1953 onwards, covering science and technology.