Administrative Boundary of Clackmannanshire

About Clackmannanshire

Clackmannanshire is a council area in central Scotland. Covering approximately 159 square kilometres at the foot of the Ochil Hills on the north bank of the River Forth, Clackmannanshire is Scotland's smallest council area by land area, earning it the affectionate nickname "the Wee County." Despite its small size, Clackmannanshire had a population of approximately 51,000 at the 2022 Census and contains significant heritage including Alloa Tower (one of the largest medieval tower houses in Scotland), the dramatically sited Castle Campbell above Dollar Glen, and a distinctive cluster of Hillfoot towns at the foot of the Ochil escarpment. Alloa Tower and Alloa Alloa, the principal town and administrative centre of Clackmannanshire, developed in the 18th and 19th centuries as an important brewing, glass-making, and weaving centre, exploiting the River Forth for trade and transport. Alloa Tower (in the care of the National Trust for Scotland) is one of the largest and best-preserved medieval tower houses in Scotland: begun in the 14th century and extended to its current form in the 15th and 16th centuries, the tower was the seat of the Erskine family (later Earls of Mar and Kellie) and contains a remarkable original vaulted interior with medieval timbers. Mary Queen of Scots stayed at Alloa Tower on several occasions and her infant son — the future James VI of Scotland and James I of England — was brought up here under the guardianship of the Earl of Mar. The Hillfoot Towns and Castle Campbell The Hillfoot towns — Dollar, Tillicoultry, Alva, and Menstrie, stretching along the foot of the Ochil Hills — developed in the 18th and 19th centuries as centres of wool and woollen cloth production, their mills powered by the swift streams descending from the Ochil escarpment. Dollar Academy, founded by John McNabb in 1818 and one of the leading independent schools in Scotland, gives Dollar a particular character as an educational centre. Castle Campbell (National Trust for Scotland) — a 15th-century tower house dramatically perched above the deep ravine of Dollar Glen — was the lowland seat of the Campbell earls of Argyll and was burned by Cromwellian forces in 1654; the combination of the ruined castle with the wooded glen and the Ochil skyline creates one of the finest landscape settings of any Scottish castle. The Ochil Hills and Clackmannan The Ochil Hills — a dramatic fault-line scarp rising abruptly to 720 metres at Ben Cleuch — provide a striking backdrop to the Forth Valley and contain important upland habitats and walking routes. The village of Clackmannan, which gives the county its name, contains the Clackmannan Tower (a well-preserved 14th-century tower house) and the "Clach Mannan" — a prehistoric standing stone beside the Mercat Cross. GIS and Boundary Data The administrative boundary of Clackmannanshire Council is available for free download in GeoJSON and KML formats, sourced from the OS Open Geography portal (Crown copyright 2024). Compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, and Google Earth, the dataset supports medieval tower house archaeology, hillfoot landscape management, industrial heritage research, upland ecology, and demographic analysis across the Clackmannanshire council area.

📍 Administrative boundary of Clackmannanshire county