1700s
There is documentary evidence to say that the ‘fermtoun’ of Gartmore has existed since at least 1598 but the village, as we know it today, was created in 1725 by Nicol Graham. The first map of the village dates from 1776. Drovers, taking cattle to market, passed through Gartmore and there has been an Inn on this site since at least 1740. Interesting to think that when the drovers were calling for a drink at the bar, America was still British, Bonnie Prince Charlie was leading the Jacobite Rebellion, the French Revolution hadn’t started and life expectancy was less than 40.
1800s
By the 1800’s, the Trossachs was at the epicentre of Scottish tourism inspired by the romantic novels of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Queen Victoria sat on the throne and The Black Bull was, by that time, an established Inn and hotel.
1900s
Locally, Robert Bontine Cunningham Graham MP, the ‘Gaucho Laird’ and founder of both the Scottish Labour Party and the modern Scottish National Party, lived at Gartmore House. In 1906, Sir Charles Cayzer, head of one of Britain’s wealthiest shipping families, purchased Gartmore House, and was responsible for huge investment in the village infrastructure including The Black Bull - a petrol pump was installed outside the pub to fill up those new fangled motor cars.