Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

ST NINIANS
St Ninians and Stirling, the Boundary Commissioners
in 1891 transferred to the parish of Stirling the three
detached parts of St Ninians parish, situated at the
Craigs, Allan Park, and Shiphaugh — all within the
parliamentary limits of the burgh of Stirling, and com-
prising respectively 6, 12, and 170 acres; also the parts
of the same parish situated at Eaploch, to the east of
the western parliamentary boundary of the burgh of
Stirling, and at Forthbank, to the west of the eastern
parliamentary boundary of the burgh. They at the
same time transferred to St Ninians parish those portions
of Stirling parish which lay on the right bank of the
river Forth and to the east of the eastern parliamen-
tary boundary of the burgh of Stirling, and also the
portion whichlay to the eastof the Stirlingand StNinians
Road and of Port Street, and to the south of Craigs
Street. The boundary is largely natural. From the
NW corner the line follows the N side of the Forth from
the mouth of the West Carse Burn downwards to the
junction with the Teith, and then the middle of the
river downwards to the mouth of East Mains Burn,
except for 1J mile N of the town of Stirling, where the
parish of Stirling comes in, the whole distance traced
tiy the Forth being 19£ miles following the windings
of the river. On the E the line largely follows the
courses of the East Mains, Darnbog, and Tor Burns; on
the S those of Tor Burn and the river Carron, which
forms the boundary for 64 miles; and on the W those
of Endrick Water and Burnfoot Burn. The greatest
length of the parish, from the junction of the Darnbog
and Tor Burns to form the Pow Burn on the E, to the
junction of Burnfoot Burn with Endrick Water on the W,
is 12j miles; and the greatest breadth, from the junc-
tion of the rivers Forth and Teith on the N, to the
junction of Buckie Burn with the river Carron on
the S, is 7 miles. The height above sea-level rises
from 26 feet near the Forth in the NE corner and 36
near the Forth at the NW corner, towards the S and
W borders. The central portion of the parish is on
an average from 200 to 300 feet high; and at Gillies
Hill the height is 500 feet, at Great Hill W of Sauchie
House 831, above Barr Wood SW of Auchenbowie
House 503. The highest ground, forming the eastern
extremity of the Lennox Hills, is in the W and SW,
at Scout Head (705 feet), Earl's Hill (1443), Hart
Hill (1428), Cringate Law (1300)— including the moor-
lands of Touch Muir, Touchadam Muir, The Fell, and
Cringate Muir — Cairnoch Hill (1354), Craigannet Hill
(1171), Craigengelt Hill (1000), and Dundaff Hill (1157).
The ground is divided into what is locally known as
carse, dryfield, and moorland. The first; — which occupies
the southern and eastern districts — was, before the march
of modern agricultural improvement began, a fiat stretch
of morass, but is now highly cultivated, and produces
heavy crops. The part of it along the edge of the Forth
has to be protected by strong embankments against the
overflow of the river during floods. The dryfield — the
most extensive of the three — is the higher ground be-
hind the carse, with an undulating surface sloping
chiefly to the N and E. It is highly cultivated, and
has numerous hedgerows and plantations. The moor-
land, lying in the W and SW among the heights already
mentioned, comprises about J of the whole area. The
northern part iB heathy, but the southern abounds in
excellent pasture, and there is some good and well-
cultivated haughland along the river Carron. The soil
of the carse is an alluvium 8 to 20 feet deep, and below
this lie successively layers of moss, drift, and sand.
The whole of it has been, within a comparatively recent
period — certainly subsequent to the appearance of man
— beneath the level of the sea, but there must have
been a land surface previous to the formation of the
upper alluvial deposits, as the layer of moss beneath these
contains bark and branches of hazel. At the time of the
battle of Bannockburn the carse seems to have been an
impassable morass. The underlying rocks are carbon-
iferous, those to the E belonging to the Coal-measures,
those in the centre to the Carboniferous Limestone
aeries, while on the W throughout the moorland district
1442
ST NINIANS
are interbedded basalts. There are collieries at Auchen-
bowie, Bannockburn, Cowie, Greenyards, and Plean,
and the other beds are quarried at different places.
The drainage of a small portion of the parish in the
extreme W goes to the great Clyde basin, being carried
off by Endrick Water and Burnfoot Burn and the
smaller streams flowing to it; the surplus rainfall else-
where goes to the Forth. Along the N it is carried off
by the river Forth itself, which receives in the NW
corner the Baston and Touch Burns — the latter receiv-
ing the Craigbrock Burn — and elsewhere along the N
a number of smaller streams. Flowing through the
centre and NE of the parish is the Bannock Burn, which,
rising at Earl's Hill, has a course of 14 miles north-east-
ward to the Forth, receiving near the middle of its
length Sauchie Burn. Besides the streams already
mentioned on the E and S borders, there are also in
the SE Small Burn, uniting with some other streams to
form Sauchinford Burn flowing to Tor Burn, and Plean
Burn also flowing to Tor Burn; in the centre of the
S side Auchenbowie Burn, which passes through the
parish of Dunipace to the Carron; and in the SW
Buckie Burn and Earl's Burn, both flowing to the
Carron. On Touch Burn is a waterfall called Gilmour's
Linn, and on the river Carron another called Auchen-
tillin's Spout. Neither are of any great height. The
only lake is Loch Coulter, near the middle of the S side,
which is separately noticed.
There are a number of tumuli, and at that at Ghosts'
Knowe, on the Buckie Burn, near the centre of the S side
of the parish, a sepulchral chamber was opened in 1839,
but the valuable find of implements, etc., was scattered
by the ignorant workmen employed. The Roman road
from Camelon northwards entered the parish about f
mile W of Carbrook House (in Dunipace parish), and
ran in a straight line north-westward to Snabhead, SW
of Bannockburn House, where it turned NNW and ran
parallel to the modern road through the town of St
Ninians to Stirling and to the W of it. A few traces
of it are still to be seen, as well as of some of the stations.
The old pronunciation and often the spelling of the name
was St Ringans, which is still in common local use,
though it is now beginning to be superseded by St
Ninians, which has been the spelling since the end of
the 18th century. There must have been a church here
from a very early date, and the dedication was to St
Ninian, who flourished in the end of the 4th and the
beginning of the 5th centuries, and who converted the
southern Picts to Christianity. (See Whithorn.) This
church was probably near the well called St Ninian's
Well, on the S side of Stirling. In the reign of David I.
Robert, Bishop of St Andrews (1126-58), granted to the
newly founded Cambuskenneth Abbey 'the church of
Egglis St Ninians, with its chapels of Dunipace and
Lithbert, and all its other chapels and oratories, and
all other pertinents;' but whether this church was on
the site of the early one or occupied the same position
as the present church cannot now be determined.
Another church at Kirk-o'-muir, 7i miles SW of the
present parish church, is said to have been one of the
earliest churches in Scotland where the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper was dispensed by the Reformers in Scot-
land. It figures in the Commissary's list as the chnrch
of a distinct parish apart from St Ninians, but no
traces of the building are now to be seen, though the
churchyard remains. There was also a chapel at
Cambusbarron, and another dedicated to the Virgin
Mary at Skeoch, J mile NE of Bannockburn. In the
extreme SW of the parish are the ruins of a castle,
once the stronghold of Sir John Graham, the companion
of Wallace; and near it are the lands of Dundaff, from
which the Duke of Montrose, who is sprung from an
elder branch of the same family of Graham, takes his
title of Viscount of Dundaff. There are also rains of
old castles at Sauchie and Carnock, which are separately
noticed. Traversed by the great main road from Edin-
burgh to Stirling and the north, the parish has been
the scene of many of the events connected with the
national history of Scotland. To the SW of the town