Stirlingshire
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a fertile county of Scotland, on the isthmus between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, and forming part of the border land between the Highlands and Lowlands ; area, 298,579 acres. It is bounded N. by Perth and Clackmannan, from which it is separated by the Forth, E. by the Firth of Forth and Linlithgow , S. by Lanark and Dumbarton, and W. by Dumbarton and Loch Lomond. The parish of Alva forms a detached portion of Stirlingshire, and there is another small portion toward the W. extremity of the Ochils. The district of the "Carse," 36,000 acres in extent, stretching along the Forth, is only a few feet above the level, but in the W. and S. the surface is varied by tracts of heath, moss, and pasture. In the N. W. is Ben Lomond, in the N. E. part of the Ochils and in the S. the lower Campsie Fells. Besides the Forth, the streams of Stirlingshire are the Avon, Allander, Kelvin, Endrick, Bannock, Carron, Allan (for about a mile), etc. The county includes rich coal and iron districts. There are some 40,000 acres of oak coppice, yielding a large supply of bark. The soil is varied, and agriculture is in a highly proficient state. Wheat and beans are abundantly produced in the Carse, and potatoes and turnips in the higher "dryfield" farms. The manufacture of carpets, tartans, plaidings, shawls, and other woolens is carried on at Bannockburn, Cambusbarron, etc. There are large ironworks at Carron; cotton mills at Fintry, Balfron, and Milngavie; print-fields at Denny, Milngavie, Lennoxtown, etc.; tanworks at Stirling and Falkirk; and shipping yards at Grangemouth. Pop. about 175,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Stirlingshire as Collier's described it in 1921 no longer exists as a unit of government: the county was abolished in 1975 and its ground now lies mostly in the Stirling and Falkirk council areas, with the Campsie and Milngavie corner in East Dunbartonshire. The industrial base named in 1921 has gone almost entirely — the Carron Company's "large ironworks," founded in 1759, closed in 1982; the coal and iron districts, the cotton mills at Balfron and Milngavie, the print-fields and the 40,000 acres of oak coppice worked for tanning bark are all finished. Grangemouth, listed only for its shipping yards, became Scotland's petrochemical centre, with a refinery opened in the 1920s and now the country's single largest industrial complex. The farming of the Carse and the landmarks — Ben Lomond, the Ochils, the Campsie Fells, Bannockburn — are as the account gives them.
Written for this edition, 2026.