On May 4, 1784, the lands of Balquharn between Alva and Menstrie were purchased by John Johnstone of Alva.

In the disposition the land is described as having ‘houses, buildings, parts, pendicles, pertinents thereof, and teinds parsonage and vicarage of the same, lying within the Parish of Logie and Sheriffdom of Clackmannan’.

The earliest reference to Balquharn was in 1321 when King Robert Bruce confirmed a charter of the land at Balquharn to ‘Henrico de Anand,’ Henry de Anand. It then fell into Schaw hands. Sir Henry Bruce was knighted by Charles II and received the charter under the Great Seal on 26th March 1669. He married Mary, the daughter of Sir Alexander Schaw of Sauchie, but the land ended up going down the Schaw line rather than Bruce.

Sir John Schaw of Greenock inherited the land from his father, also Sir John Schaw of Greenock, on 22nd April 1704. Charles Schaw, Lord Cathcart, then inherited it on 1st June 1753.

The legal ownership of the land was then disponed to James Guild in 1773. In the later disposition when Johnstone bought it, it came to light that although Guild feued the land, Lord Cathcart held onto his rights to the coal and mines for payment of feu duty. This was mentioned in the contract dated 24h November 1759 and registered in the Sheriff Court Books of Clackmannan on 30th July 1760. The feu charter itself was dated 18th October 1760.

On October 10, 1783 the Trustees of James Guild Senior sold the land due to debts he had accrued with Dr Robert Anderson, a physician at Alnwick, and William Wright, a merchant in Stirling. His distilling business at Dolls, Menstrie, also failed due to bad harvests.

After Johnstone purchased the land, it was registered in the Books of Council and Session on June 17, 1784. He disponed the land to his son and heir James Raymond Johnstone, and his male heirs. The instrument of Sassine in his favour was granted on August 5, 1796. James Raymond Johnstone also took over the lands at Myretoun, and Kirklands of Tullibody. When Johnstone died, his son James inherited them in 1831.

James Johnstone died in 1888, leaving the lands to his son John Augustus James, but just two years later, he died and Miss Caroline Elizabeth Mary Johnstone became the life renter of Balquharn, while her half brother Major James Henry L’Estrange Johnstone of Hangingshaw became the feuer.

A legend associated with Balquharn involves the Myretoun Maid who was said to meet her lover in the glen there.