Keir (Celt. eaer, 'fort'), a mansion on the mutual border of Lecropt and Dunblane parishes, S Perthshire, 1¾ mile SSW of Dunblane town and 1¾ NW of Bridge of Allan. The lands of Keir were acquired from George Leslie of that ilk in 1448 by Lucas of Strevelyn, whose descendant, William, between 1849 and 1851 ' made considerable alterations in the house, removing the entrance from the E to the N, building a new set of offices, turning the old entrance hall into a noble library, and adding a bay to the eastern front. The porch, gateway, and connecting arcade, and the terraces which surround three sides of the house, were likewise constructed by him; and he added considerably to the beautiful pleasure-grounds. 'He, Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-78), was author of The Cloister Life of Charles V. and other works, and sat for Perthshire in the Conservative interest from 1852 to 1868. In 1865 he succeeded his maternal uncle in the Pollok estates and baronetcy, and assumed the additional surname of Maxwell. He held 20, 814 acres, valued at £34, 245 per annum, viz., 8863 in Perthshire (£5732), 1487 in Stirlingshire (£2370), 4773 in Renfrewshire (£14,171), and 5691 in Lanarkshire (£11,972). His son and successor, Sir John Maxwell Stirling-Max-well, tenth Bart. since 1682, was born in 1866.—Ord. Sur., sh. 39, 1869. See Dr William Fraser's Stirlings of Keir (Edinb. 1858).
Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and
optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical
errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from
the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be
different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original
text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity.
This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer
