Milnathort, a little market town in Orwell parish, Kinross-shire, lying 400 feet above sea-level, near the left bank of North Queich Water, and within 1 mile of the NW corner of Loch Leven. Its station on the North British railway is 13/8 mile N by E of Kinross station, and 13¾ miles WSW of Ladybank Junction. It stands amid a fine tract of country, screened by the Lomond Hills on the E, and by the Ochils on the N and W; and comprises fine well-built streets, which are lighted with gas from the Kinross and Milnathort gas-works (1835). There are a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the Clydesdale Bank, 3 hotels, a town-hall, 2 schools, a library (1797), etc. A handsome bridge across the Queich was built about 1850, in place of a crazy, shabby, old structure. Orwell parish church, on a neighbouring eminence, was built in 1729, and completely renovated a few years ago, being now all that can be desired as regards accommodation and comfort. It has two large and very handsome stained-glass windows. There are also a Free church and a U.P. church, the latter of which, erected in 1869 at a cost of £3000, is a fine Gothic building with 700 sittings and a spire 125 feet high. The poet Walter Chalmers Smith, D.D., LL.D., was Free Church minister from 1853 till 1858. Wednesday is marketday; and four old cattle fairs have been superseded by weekly and monthly live-stock sales, which are largely attended, as the only sale of the kind in the county. Cotton-weaving was long carried on, but went into decline; but the manufacture of tartan shawls and plaids, introduced in 1838, has always continued to prosper, and was extended about 1867 by the erection of a large factory. Pop. (1801) 959, (1831) 1772, (1861) 1476, (1871) 1312, (1881) 1269, of whom 733 were females. Houses (1881) 344 inhabited, 25 vacant, 2 building.—Ord. Sur., sh. 40, 1867.
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