Stirlingshire

The arms of Stirling County Council

The County Council of Stirling was granted a coat of arms by Lord Lyon King of Arms on 29 September 1890.

The design of the arms commemorated the Scottish victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in the county.

On the silver saltire on blue of St Andrew was placed the rampant red lion from the royal arms of Scotland.

Around this were placed two caltraps and two spur-rowels recalling the use of the weapons against the English cavalry.[3]

On the abolition of the Local Government council in 1975, the arms were regranted to the Local Government Stirling District Council.

They were regranted a second time in 1996 to the present Local Government Stirling Council, with the addition of supporters (a goshawk and a wolf).

Bruce addressing his troops before the Battle of Bannockburn

In 1130, Stirling, one of the principal royal strongholds of the Kingdom of Scotland, was created a Royal burgh by King David I.

On 11 September 1297, the forces of Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated the combined English forces of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, and Hugh de Cressingham near Stirling, on the River Forth, at the Battle of Stirling Bridge during the First War of Scottish Independence.

On 22 July 1298 the Battle of Falkirk saw the defeat of William Wallace by King Edward I of England.

On 24 June 1314 the Battle of Bannockburn at Bannockburn, (Blàr Allt a' Bhonnaich in Scottish Gaelic) was a significant Scottish victory in the Wars of Scottish Independence. It was one of the decisive battles of the First War of Scottish Independence.

On 11 June 1488 the Battle of Sauchieburn was fought at the side of Sauchie Burn, a stream about two miles south of Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland.[4] The battle was fought between the followers of King James III of Scotland and a large group of rebellious Scottish nobles including Alexander Home, 1st Lord Home, nominally led by the king's 15-year-old son, Prince James, Duke of Rothesay (reigned 1488–1513).

In 1645 the Covenanter army under General William Baillie formed near Banton for their engagement with the Royalist forces under the command of Montrose at the Battle of Kilsyth, Kilsyth, on 15 August 1645; a major battle of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

The Battle of Falkirk Muir on 17 January 1746 saw the Jacobites under Charles Edward Stuart defeat a government army commanded by Lieutenant General Henry Hawley.

Stirlingshire occupies a strategic position on the Forth-Clyde isthmus commanding the main overland routes from Glasgow and Edinburgh up to central and northern Scotland.

Ben Lomond looking north across Loch Lomond at the waterline

The western 'arm' of the county is sparsely populated and dominated by Loch Lomond, which it shares with Dunbartonshire, and the Trossachs (now a national park); Ben Lomond is located here and is the highest point in Stirlingshire at 974 m (3,196 ft), and 9th in Scotland. Several islands within Loch Lomond belong to Stirlingshire, the chief of these being Eilean nan Deargannan, Buchinch, Ceardach, Inchcruin, Inchfad, Ellanderroch, Inchcailloch and Clairinsh. On the north-eastern boundary with Perthshire a small portion of Loch Katrine lies within Stirlingshire, and also the smaller Loch Arklet can be found here.

The Carron Valley Reservoir in central Stirlingshire

Central Stirlingshire is dominated by the Carron Valley Reservoir and the Campsie Fells, Kilsyth Hills and Gargunnock Hills, with the larger towns such as Lennoxtown and Kilsyth spread out along the southern border and A891/A803 roads. The south-western corner of the county around Milngavie abuts the Greater Glasgow conurbation and contains several small reservoirs and lochs, such as Burncrooks Reservoir, Kilmannan Reservoir, Carbeth Loch, Craigallian Loch, Dumbrock Loch, Mugdock Loch, Mugdock/Craigmaddie Reservoir and Bardowie Loch.

The area east of the M80 is generally much flatter and contains the bulk of the county's population, with the Firth of Forth providing access to the North Sea.

The bulk of Stirlingshire's motorway network lies in the eastern third of the county where the population is most concentrated; these include the M80 running north–south and connecting Stirling and Denny to Cumbernauld, and the M9 linking the eastern towns to Edinburgh. Various A roads form a circle around central Strirlingshire, with the rest of the county served by B roads.

Various ferries enable one to cross Loch Lomond in the far west, and the Kincardine Bridge in the far east provides access to Fife and Clackmannanshire.

Only the eastern third of the county is connected by rail, with the exception of Milngavie railway station in the far south-west which provides access to Glasgow. The rail lines connect the towns of the eastern conurbation to each other and on to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cumbernauld and Perth.

Map A: Civil parishes in Stirlingshire in use for local government until 1930.

Map B: Stirlingshire Civil Parish map.[5] Boundaries marked in red.

In 2001, according to the website of the General Register Office for Scotland, there were 871 civil parishes.[6] List of civil parishes in Scotland

Civil parishes are still used for some statistical purposes, and separate census figures are published for them. As their areas have been largely unchanged since the 19th century this allows for comparison of population figures over an extended period of time.

Following the boundary changes caused by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, Stirlingshire contained the following civil parishes:

Burghs

Map of Stirlingshire in 1975, showing the position of burghs in the county.

• The Royal Burgh of Stirling (from the 12th century) (No. 2 on map)
• The Burgh of Bridge of Allan (a police burgh from 1870) (1)
• The Burgh of Denny and Dunipace (a police burgh from 1877) (4)
• The Burgh of Falkirk (a burgh of barony from 1600, reformed 1832) (5)
• The Burgh of Grangemouth (a police burgh from 1877) (6)
• The Burgh of Kilsyth (a burgh of barony from 1620, a police burgh from 1878) (3)

In 1930 Falkirk and Stirling became large burghs, taking over some of the duties of the county council. The remaining four burghs became "small burghs", with limited powers.

Until the 1890s the county had two small exclaves: part of the parish of Logie, which was surrounded by Perthshire, and the parish of Alva, locally in Clackmannanshire. The Perthshire part of Logie was added to Stirlingshire, while Alva was annexed by Clackmannanshire. In 1894 parish Local Government councils were established for the civil parishes, replacing the previous parochial boards.

The Local Government parish councils were in turn superseded by Local Government district councils in 1930.

In 1930 the parishes ceased to be used for local government purposes, and the landward area of the county (the part outside the burghs) was divided into eight Local Government districts. These Local Government districts were abolished in 1975.[8]

• County of Stirling Central No.1
• County of Stirling Central No.2 (Denny, Dunipace and Kilsyth areas)
• County of Stirling Eastern No.1 (parishes of Airth and Larbert)
• County of Stirling Eastern No.2 (Falkirk and Slamannan)
• County of Stirling Eastern No.3 (parishes of Polmont and Muiravonside)
• County of Stirling Western No.1
• County of Stirling Western No.2
• County of Stirling Western No.3 (Baldernock, Campsie, Strathblane)

In the 1973 reorganisation of local government in Scotland, most of Stirlingshire was included in the Central Region, with Kilsyth and surrounding area becoming part of the Strathclyde Region.

Since a further reorganisation in 1996, the area has been part of the Local Government council areas of :

• Stirling (note that this polity has drastically different boundaries to historic Stirlingshire)
• East Dunbartonshire
• Falkirk
• North Lanarkshire

Following the Act of Union, Stirlingshire returned members to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1708.

• 
  Wallace Monument from Kildean Market
• 
  Causewayhead from the Wallace Monument

• William Nimmo's The History of Stirlingshire at Electric Scotland
• "The Imperial gazetteer of Scotland". Vol.II. by Rev. John Marius Wilson. https://archive.org/stream/imperialgazettee02wilsuoft#page/n815/mode/1up
• Entry on Stirlingshire, from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland by Samuel Lewis, London, 1846 (British History Online)
• Heritage Paths. http://www.heritagepaths.co.uk/pathdetails.php?path=387
• Map of Stirlingshire on Wikishire