Fintry

History

There is evidence of people living in the area as early at the Bronze Age, up to 4,000 years ago. *Todholes Cairn, Fintry Hills - double ring cairn of the late Neolithic/earlier Bronze Age (3500 to 4500 years old) *Machar/Waterhead Stones - pair of Neolithic standing stones "Old" Fintry was formed around the Church area or Clachan of Fintry in the early 13th century. From 1699, the Barons of Culcreuch resided there. The castle was converted into a hotel in the 1980s and operated as such until early 2020, bringing its 700-year lifespan to an end. Until 2020, it was Central Scotland's longest-inhabited castle. Culcreuch is a three-story, attic-topped rectangular tower house with a parapet and slate roof. The Napier family built the north and east expansions to the old tower about 1721, which match the original tower in style. The Castle is accessible by path from the village and is a popular local walk. The small industrial ‘new town’ of Fintry (or "Newton of Fintry") developed north-west of the original clachan following the establishment of the Culcreuch cotton spinning mill by Peter Spiers in 1795. The mill and two small settlements were recorded in the mid-eighteenth century. the village had retained examples of former mill workers’ housing alongside traditional buildings from the later eighteenth and turn of the nineteenth centuries.