In the second half of the 18C, a local landowner, Robert Barclay of Ury, who had made his fortune in Jamaica, decided to build a new village north of the River Carron. The spacious square still has its clock tower and market place. No 9 Market Square (on the south side of the square) has a plaque to Robert William Thomson (1822-1873), who invented the rubber tyre in 1845, known as the "air wheel" at the time.