Stirling
Geography
Area: - Total - % Water	Ranked 9th 2,187 km² ? %
Admin HQ:	Stirling
ISO 3166-2:	GB-STG
ONS code:	00RG
Demographics
Population: - Total (April 29, 2001) - Density	Ranked 26th 86,212 39 / km²
Politics
Stirling Council http://www.stirling.gov.uk
Control:	Labour
MPs:	Anne McGuire Martin O'Neill
MSPs:	Sylvia Jackson George Reid

Stirling is one of 32 unitary council regions in Scotland with a population of about 85,000. It covers most of the county of Stirlingshire (except Falkirk) and the South-western portion of Perthshire. The administrative centre of the region is the city of Stirling itself. The region borders Clackmannanshire (to the east), Falkirk (to the south east), Perth and Kinross (to the north and north east), Argyll and Bute (to the north and north west), and both East and West Dunbartonshire, both to Stirling's southwest.

The majority of the population of the region is located in its southeast corner, in the city of Stirling and in the surrounding lowland communities: Dunblane and Bridge of Allan to the north, Bannockburn to the immediate south, and the three former coal mining communities of Cowie, Fallin, and Plean (known collectively as "The Eastern Villages"). The remaining 30 percent of the region's population is sparsely distributed across the rural expanse of the region. The southern half of this rural region comprises the flat western floodplain of the River Forth, bounded on the south by the Touch Hills and the Campsie Fells. North of the valley lie the Trossachs mountains, and the northern half of the region is generally mountainous and highland in character.

Towns and villages

• Aberfoyle
• Ardchyle
• Ardeonaig
• Arnpryor
• Balmaha
• Bannockburn
• Boreland
• Bridge of Allan
• Brig O' Turk
• Buchlyvie
• Callander
• Cowie
• Craigruie
• Crianlarich
• Croftamie
• Doune (location of a castle used in the filming of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
• Drymen
• Dunblane (scene of the Dunblane Massacre)
• Fallin
• Fintry
• Gargunnock
• Inversnaid
• Killearn
• Killin
• Kinbuck
• Kinlochard
• Kippen
• Lochearnhead
• Mugdock
• Port of Menteith
• Plean
• Rowardennan
• Strathyre
• Stronachlachar
• Thornhill
• Tyndrum
• Stirling
• Strathblane

Places of interest

• Culcreuch Castle
• Inchmahome Priory (a ruined Augustinian priory on an island in the Lake of Menteith, used as a refuge in 1547 by Mary, Queen of Scots)
• Breadalbane Folklore Centre
• Cambuskenneth Abbey (formerly the seat of the Scottish Parliament)
• Falls of Dochart
• Falls of Lochay
• Glen Dochart
• Lake of Menteith (Scotland's only 'Lake')
• Loch Achray
• Loch Ard
• Loch Earn
• Loch Katrine (The source of most of the drinking water for the city of Glasgow)
• Loch Venachar
• Moirlannich Longhouse
• Queen Elizabeth Forest Park (run by the Forestry Commission)
• Scottish Institute of Sport (on the grounds of Stirling University)
• The University of Stirling

External links

• Map and census information (PDF document)