Stirlingshire

"STIRLINGSHIRE Civil Parish map" by The Imperial gazetteer of Scotland. Vol.II. by Rev. John Marius Wilson. 
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 History

ONE of the most important and beautiful counties in Scotland, is situated partly in the Highlands and partly in the Lowlands; bounded on the east by the county of Linlithgow and the river Forth, on the south and west by Dumbartonshire, on the north by the shires of Perth and Clackmannan (which latter county. touches it also on the east), and on the south and east by portions of Lanarkshire. Its boundaries are in many places distinctly marked by water-courses or lakes - the principal boundary line on the north being the Forth, the Avon on the East, the Kelvin river on the south, the Endrick water on the south-west, and Loch Lomond on the west. Its length from east to west is thirty-six miles; its breadth varies from twelve to twenty miles. The shire comprises an area of four hundred and sixty-seven square miles, or 298,579 acres.

The county as has been said, is partly Highland and partly Lowland. The former, which is the western quarter, and adjacent to Loch Lomond, is a mountainous district; here the majestic Ben Lomond rises to the height of more than three thousand feet. East from this Highland part the land becomes flat, or gently inclining towards the Forth of the Endrick In the centre of the county the ground is again elevated into a series of hills, of which those of the greatest altitude are from thirteen to fifteen hundred feet ; from one of these eminences, in Kilsyth parish, there is obtained one of the finest views in Scotland : it is computed to embrace an extent of 12,000 square miles. Many of the hills in the central, and more especially in the southern division, have their sides and even their summits clothed with a fine grass sward, which affords excellent pasturage for sheep. The eastern division of the county consists of beautiful carse land, in many places quite flat, and in others presenting a succession of inclined planes, gradually rising towards the south from the rich valley of the Forth. Al- most every variety of soil to be met with in Scotland occurs in Stirlingshire: but the most common and the most fertile in the county is the alluvial or carse land, which occupies many thousand acres on the banks of the Forth. In this species of soil there are beds of shells, clay, maid, and moss. In the western and central districts, on the banks of the rivers, the land is generally of a light and gravelly description ; while patches of rich loam present their surface to the husbandman in other parts of the county, From the great variety of the soil, the system of agriculture in Stirlingshire naturally cannot be uniform, nor its produce equally abundant or limited to any particular species; large crops of wheat, barley, beans, peas, turnips, potatoes, &c., are raised; the culture of artificial grasses has also been very generally adopted in this county.

The Forth is the principal river in Stirlingshire; it takes its rise from a spring near the summit of Ben Lomond, and, after receiving in its course the Teith, the Allan, and the Devon, expands into that noble estuary called the Firth of Forth.

Stirlingshire, Dumbartonshire and Linlithgowshire Business Directory for 1893-94. Edinburgh: Charles Lamburn, 1894.

Queries and Surnams

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