For one resident at the top end of Nechtan Drive, the hope of returning home to Coalsnaughton is already slipping away.
Shaunny, who was uprooted by sudden ground movement and now living in temporary accommodation away from the village for at least eight weeks, says it feels less like a short‑term emergency and more like the end of life as they knew it.
They described the shock of having to leave a house they had built up over years, with only limited time to pack essentials and organise their dogs, as almost 100 homes were evacuated.
In their case, parents being abroad meant they had five days to get things sorted – “because we had the five days, everybody’s accommodation runs out today, ours was just starting,” she said – but others have had it much tougher.
One evacuee has been told they can stay in the hotel they were moved to, but not their dogs, while Shaunny described some of the Stirling University rooms being used as “a state”, asking: “Why should they have to come home to that?”
In response to criticism, a spokesperson for the University of Stirling said: “We understand that this is an incredibly difficult time for Coalsnaughton residents affected by this major incident.
"We are working in partnership with Clackmannanshire Council to provide temporary accommodation for a small number of affected families, who have engaged positively with our staff and settled well into the accommodation.
"Our staff are available 24/7 to support them.”
The upheaval has shattered daily routines in and around the former mining village.
“Stirling’s not particularly close to here for taking people’s kids to school and stuff like that,” the Nechtan Drive resident said.
The Love family, who live beside the gate now closing off Main Street, say all they do these days is worry.
"You wake up and it’s all you can think about," they said.
They told how the village now feels like "a ghost town", with the dog‑walkers and passers‑by they used to see now gone.
Even accessing homes is difficult. Families say they have only been allowed back during short, pre‑booked slots, sparking “uproar” as people tried to salvage furniture.
Fire engines lined Main Street up to the village hall in the early days of the emergency, and residents now wake to the sound of machinery at around 6am most mornings.
“Just in the last couple of days, the state of the road and everything has got worse,” the Nechtan Drive resident said. “We're never getting back in there. They're going to have to demolish everything."
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