stirling-1963-vol-1/05_035

Transcription

INTRODUCTION
to the Inventory of the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Stirlingshire

PART 1. GENERAL
1. THE LAND AND ITS RESOURCES

Stirlingshire lies in the Midland Valley of Scotland, occupying most of the narrow
"waist" between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, but the county presents no real
geographical unity. Its core is the massif of the Lennox Hills, much of which is over
1000 ft. above sea-level and comprises the Fintry Hills (Stronend 1676 ft.), the Gargunnock
Hills (up to 1591 ft.), the Touch Hills and their southward extension (Earl's Hill 1443 ft.),
the Kilsyth Hills (Garrel Hill 1503 ft.) and the Campsie Fells (Meikle Bin 1870 ft.) Earl's Seat
(1896 ft.). This core is surrounded by a lowland margin which extends to the River and Firth
of Forth on the north and east, to the Bonny Water and the River Kelvin on the south, and
to the eastern corner of Loch Lomond on the west; much of this lies at quite low elevations,
the moss flanking the Forth, where it first touches the county, at less than 60 ft. above sea
level and the watershed between the Kelvin and the Bonny Water at just under 200 ft. The
surface of Loch Lomond lies at about 27 ft. Beyond the lowland margin of the core there
are four outlying areas, the largest of which is a tapering strip of mountainous country, which
flanks Loch Lomond on the north-east nearly as far as its head and reaches an elevation of 3192
ft. at the summit of Ben Lomond. Second is an outlier of the Kilpatrick Hills (Auchineden Hill
1171 ft.) south-west of the Blane valley; third a triangular block projecting into the Southern
Uplands south of Falkirk, which nowhere exceeds 750 ft. in elevation; and finally a small area
just across the Forth from Stirling which includes a portion of the Ochil Hills (up to 1771 ft.).
A gently curving line drawn through the middle of the county, from Linlithgow Bridge on the
east to Ben Ducteach at the north-western corner, is about 50 miles in length; while a transverse
measurement, from the Ochils to south of Black Loch, is about 21 miles. The total area of the
county is 288, 842 acres, or 451.3 square miles.
The interior of the Lennox Hills is drained by the River Carron and the Endrick Water,
the former running eastwards to the Firth of Forth and the latter westwards to Loch Lomond.
The Endrick Water is joined, after reaching the lower-lying ground, by the Blane Water,
which turns the western shoulder of the Campsie Fells in a trough which separates these from
the Kilpatrick Hills. The southern side of the Lennox Hills is drained by short tributaries of
the River Kelvin and the Bonny Water, and their northern and eastern sides by other short
streams discharging respectively into the River Forth and its Firth. The Forth and its

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