Kippen, a village in Stirlingshire and a parish partly also in Perthshire. The village stands, 210 feet above sea-level, 1 mile SSW of Kippen station on the Forth and Clyde Junction section of the North British, this being 9 miles W of Stirling, 6¾ ENE of Bucklyvie, and 21¼ ENE of Balloch. It carried on extensive whisky distillation for some time into this century, and it now is a small centre of country trade, having a post office under Stirling, with money order, savings' bank, and railway telegraph departments, two hotels, and a cattle fair on the second Wednesday of December, whilst Balgair horse, cattle, and sheep fair is held upon Kippen Muir, 2¾ miles to the SW, on the Friday before 26 June. The Gillespie Memorial Hall, accommodating 300 persons, is an- Early English edifice, with lancet windows, open timber roof, and stained woodwork, and was built in 1877-78 at a cost of £1400. The parish church, a handsome Gothic structure of 1825, with a clock-tower, was greatly improved during the fifteen years' ministry of the Rev. William Wilson, being rebenched and adorned with a beautiful pulpit and with four stained memorial windows by Messrs Ballantine, to which a fifth was added in 1882 in memory of Mr Wilson himself. A new Free church was built in 1879. Pop. (1841) 397, (1861) 403, (1871) 360, (1881) 330. The parish, containing also the villages of Bucklyvie, Cauldhame, and Arnprior, lies all compact on the S side of the Forth. It is bounded N by Port of Monteith, Kincardine (detached), and Kilmadock, E by Gargunnock, S by Balfron, and W by Drymen. Its utmost length, from E by N to W by S, is 63/8 miles; its breadth, from N to S, varies between 13/8 and 35/8 miles; and its area is 11,331½ acres, of which 76 are water, and 4966½ belong to the two Perthshire sections -the smaller containing Cauldhame, and the larger Arnprior. The winding Forth flows 83/8 miles eastward (only 47/8 miles as the crow flies) along all the northern border; its affluent, Boquhan Burn, runs 3¼ miles north-north-eastward along the Gargunnock boundary through a beautiful wooded glen; and four or five lesser streams flow to the Forth from the interior, whose chief sheets of water are the Mill Dam (2 x 1 furl.) and Loch Leggan (2 x 1¼ furl.). Along the Forth a narrow belt of very fertile haugh declines to 40 feet above sea. level; a belt of carse-ground, ½ to 1 mile in breadth, but in places broader, extends immediately behind this belt, and forms part of the great plain that flanks the Forth from Gartmore to Borrowstounness; the surface then rises, at first abruptly, afterwards very gradually, to the breadth of 1 mile or more; and the land thence onward to the southern boundary is a moorish plateau, attaining 539 feet near Muirton of Arngibbon, 600 at Kippen Muir, and 575 at Bucklyvie Muir- vantage-grounds these that command magnificent views of the far-reaching strath, away to where the rocks of Craigforth, Stirling Castle, and Abbey Craig appear like islands in the distance. Red sandstone abounds on the moors, and has been largely quarried for building; and limestone occurs on the southern border. The soil of the narrow haugh is very fertile, and eminently suited to the growth of potatoes and turnips; of the carse ground is a rich clay; of the braes further S is gravelly, sandy, or loamy; and of the moors is heathy. Rather less than half of the entire area is in tillage; about 550 acres are under wood; and the rest is either pastoral or waste. Antiquities are vestiges of five or six Roman, Pictish, or feudal forts-the 'Keir hills.' A famous Covenanters' conventicle, for celebration of the Lord's Supper, was held in 1676, 1 mile to the W of Kippen village; and a Covenanting force of between 200 and 300 men was marshalled in the parish in 1679, and figured bravely in the battle of Bothwell Bridge under James Ure of Shirgarton, whose tomb is still shown in the churchyard. The principal mansions, noticed separately, are Arngomery and Garden; and 5 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 7 of between £100 and £500, and 3 of from £50 to £100. Since 1875 giving off a portion to Bucklyvie quoad sacra parish, Kippen is in the presbytery of Dunblane and synod of Perth and Stirling; the living is worth £409. Four public schools-Arnprior, Bucklyvie, Castlehill female, and Kippen-with respective accommodation for 100, 120, 97, and 95 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 69, 84, 76, and 66, and grants of £66, 2s. 6d., £82, 5s., £64, 8s., and £76, 8s. Valuation (1883) £12, 759, 16s. 4d., of which £4590, 13s. 7d. was for the Perthshire sections. Pop. (1801) 1722, (1831) 2085, (1861) 1722, (1871) 1568, (1881) 1257, of whom 457 belonged to Perthshire, and 984 to the ecclesiastical parish.—Ord. Sur., shs. 39, 38, 1869-71.
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