Dollar () is a small town in
Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire (; ; ), or the County of Clackmannan, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, Council areas of Scotland, council area, registration counties, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland ...
, Scotland, with an estimated population of in .
It is east of Stirling.
Toponymy
The name is unrelated to the
dollar
Dollar is the name of more than 25 currencies. The United States dollar, named after the international currency known as the Spanish dollar, was established in 1792 and is the first so named that still survives. Others include the Australian d ...
currency name. Possible interpretations are that Dollar is derived from ''Doilleir'', an Irish and Scots Gaelic word meaning dark and gloomy, or from various words in Pictish: 'Dol' (field) + 'Ar' (arable) or ''Dol'' (valley) + ''Ar'' (high). Another derivation is from ''Dolar'', 'haugh place' (cf Welsh dôl 'meadow'. This word was borrowed from British or Pictish into Scottish Gaelic as ''dail'' 'water-meadow, haugh'). John Everett-Heath derives it as 'Place of the Water Meadow' from the Celtic ''dôl'' 'water meadow' and ''ar'' 'place'.
History
The 500-year-old
Castle Campbell
Castle Campbell is a medieval castle situated above the town of Dollar, Clackmannanshire, in central Scotland. It was the lowland seat of the earls and Duke of Argyll, dukes of Argyll, chiefs of Clan Campbell, from the 15th to the 19th century, ...
stands overlooking the town, sitting on a forward projection of rock on the south side of the
Ochil Hills
The Ochil Hills (; ) is a range of hills in Scotland north of the River Forth, Forth valley bordered by the cities of Stirling, Perth, Scotland, Perth and the towns of Alloa, Kinross, and Auchterarder . The only major roads crossing the hil ...
. The castle was the lowland seat of the
Duke of Argyll
Duke of Argyll () is a title created in the peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The earls, marquesses, and dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerful noble families in Scotlan ...
, where
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legit ...
once stayed in the 16th century.
The original town (of which parts still survive) stands on the sloping ground beneath the castle, in what is now the northeast section of the town. Buildings here are generally stone built and two stories high. The oldest buildings date from the mid-17th century and several 18th-century buildings exist. Development spread to the west and south through the 19th century.
Around 1840 the construction of a new road to
Muckhart on the lower ground south of the original route, created the current main east–west street. This quickly became the new "town centre" and the focus of shops and public activity.

The town has two war memorials, one for each world war. In the grounds of
Dollar Academy
Dollar Academy is a 5–18 Private schools in the United Kingdom, private co-educational day and boarding school for boys and girls in Scotland. The open campus occupies a site in the centre of Dollar, Clackmannanshire, at the foot of the Ochil ...
, a bronze figure with outstretched hands by
George Henry Paulin faces westwards and commemorates the fallen of the First World War. This also has names added for Northern Ireland.
A small museum run by volunteers contains a collection of local items, and much information about the former
Devon Valley Railway, which closed to passengers in 1964. The town is now largely a
dormitory community for people who work in Stirling and further afield (e.g. Glasgow and Edinburgh).
Location and transport
It is one of the
Hillfoots Villages, situated between the Ochil Hills range to the north and the River Devon to the south. Dollar is east of
Stirling
Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...
on the
A91 road A91 or A-91 may refer to:
* A91 road, a trunk road in Scotland
* Dutch Defence, in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
* A-91, a Soviet bull-pup assault rifle, derived from the 9A-91 carbine
{{Letter-NumberCombDisambig ...
to
St Andrews
St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...
. The Devon Valley Railway linking
Alloa
Alloa (Received Pronunciation ; Scottish pronunciation /ˈaloʊa/; , possibly meaning "rock plain") is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to ...
and
Kinross
Kinross (, ) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth, Scotland, Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the Counties of Scotland, historic county of Kinross-shire.
History
Kinro ...
closed to passengers in 1964 and to freight in 1973.
Economy
Attempts were made to mine lead and copper in Dollar Glen from the 18th century and possibly earlier, but these were of no economic significance. Coal mining in the area began around the same time and, until 1973, supplied the
Kincardine Power Station, and later, the
Longannet Power Station with coal from the
Upper Hirst
The Upper Hirst is a coal seam in central Scotland that was mined on a large scale in the 1950s through to 2002, mainly to supply Kincardine Power Station, and later, Longannet Power Station, in Fife.
This was a low-quality coal, unsuitable ...
seam. A tiny private non-
NCB coal mine operated from the Harviestoun estate from the mid-1970s, partly filling the gap that the closed NCB left, whilst there was still local demand for coal.
In common with the other Hillfoots Villages, the textiles industry played an important part in the town's development. The
Harviestoun Brewery
Harviestoun Brewery is a craft brewery based in Alva in Clackmannanshire, Scotland.
History
Harviestoun Brewery was founded in 1983 by Ken Brooker in a 200-year-old stone barn on a farm, near Tillicoultry and Dollar in Clackmannanshire. In 2004 ...
was established west of Dollar in 1985, before its move to
Alva.
Governance
From 1891 to 1975 the town had its own council.
It is now within Clackmannanshire council area. It forms part of the Clackmannanshire East ward which includes Clackmannan, Comely Bank, Dollar & Muckhart. In the 2017 local elections, residents of the ward elected three councillors—one each from the
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...
, the
Labour Party and the
Conservative Party.
Provosts
Dollar had a provost from 1891 to 1975. The provosts were:
* James Beveridge Henderson (1891–1893)
* David Westwood (1893–1896)
* Richard Malcolm (1896–1899)
* John Drysdale (1899–1902)
* M Fisher (1902–1908)
* James Benson Green (1908–1913) and (1919–1925)
*
Lavinia Malcolm (1913–1919), wife of Richard Malcolm (above), the first and only female Provost
* Captain Stewart Fairweather Butchart (1925–1931)
* C Allsopp (1931–1937)
* R Waddell (1937–1939)
* J Scott (1939–1943)
* P Walton (1943–1946)
* Alexander McLean Cowan (1946–1950)
* J Crawford Shaw (1950–1953)
* J Hewitt (1953–1956)
* J Muckersie (1956–1962)
* J M Miller (1962–1965)
* H Moss (1965–1968)
* Dr William Young Galloway (1968–1971) the town GP
* E M M Breingan (1971–1975)
Notable people

*
William Auld
William Auld (6 November 1924 – 11 September 2006) was a British poet, author, translator and magazine editor who wrote chiefly in Esperanto.
Life
Auld was born at Erith in Kent, and then moved to Glasgow with his parents, attending Allan ...
(1924–2006) poet and Esperanto author, nominated three times for the
Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
, lived in Dollar until his death
* According to the
Pictish Chronicle
The Pictish Chronicle is a name used to refer to a pseudo-historical account of the kings of the Picts beginning many thousand years before history was recorded in Pictavia and ending after Pictavia had been enveloped by Scotland.
Version A
The ...
,
Amlaíb Conung
Amlaíb Conung ( ; died c. 874) was a Viking leader in Ireland and Scotland in the mid-late ninth century. He was the son of the king of Lochlann, identified in the non-contemporary '' Fragmentary Annals of Ireland'' as Gofraid, and brother of ...
, the first Norse king of
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
, was killed in a battle fought at Dollar around 874, when
Constantine I
Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...
was the king of Scotland.
*
David Taylor (1817–1867) illegitimate poet in the Scots tongue born in Dollar
*
James Legge
James Legge (; 20 December 181529 November 1897) was a Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator
who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English. Legge served as a representative of the Lond ...
, Scottish
sinologist
Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...
*

Dollar Academy was founded in 1818 with a bequest from a Dollar native, Captain John McNabb, who had allegedly made his fortune in the slave trade. Amongst the many notable pupils at the academy are
James Dewar
Sir James Dewar ( ; 20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a Scottish chemist and physicist. He is best known for his invention of the vacuum flask, which he used in conjunction with research into the liquefaction of gases. He also studie ...
, the inventor of the
vacuum flask
A vacuum flask (also known as a Dewar flask, Dewar bottle or thermos) is an insulating storage vessel that slows the speed at which its contents change in temperature. It greatly lengthens the time over which its contents remain hotter or coo ...
; the grandsons of
Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or '' Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (') under Empress Zewditu between 1916 and 1930. Wid ...
; the second
Presiding Officer (
Speaker) of the
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...
,
George Reid
Sir George Houston Reid (25 February 1845 – 12 September 1918) was a Scottish-born Australian and British politician, diplomat, and barrister who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Australia, prime minister of Australia from 1904 t ...
; BBC Gaza correspondent
Alan Johnston; and political journalist for ''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...
'', the ''
News of the World
The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national "Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top" Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling ...
'' and ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...
'' magazines,
Fraser Nelson.
* Lavinia Malcolm,
Provost of Dollar between 1913 and 1919, was both the first lady provost and first female town councillor in Scotland (se
Dollar Town Council 1891–1975.
*
Alan Longmuir, of
Bay City Rollers
The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity, as a band in the 1970s. One of many 70s acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles", they were called the "tartan teen sensations fro ...
fame, lived just east of Dollar and owned and operated the Dollar Arms public house for a time.
* In the late 1990s,
Michael Kulas
Michael Wade Kulas (born January 27, 1969) is a Canadian singer and songwriter who was a member of the English rock band James between 1997 and 2001.
Personal life
Kulas was born in Oakville, Ontario, Canada on January 27, 1969. His family re ...
and Saul Davies, musicians in the English rock group
James, also resided and worked out of the old Tea House Cottage, now known as Brewlands, next to Castle Campbell.
* The Scottish author
Iain Banks
Iain Banks (16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies (). After the success of '' The Wasp Fact ...
studied at the nearby
University of Stirling
The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airth ...
and, in an interview for ''
The South Bank Show
''The South Bank Show'' is a British television arts magazine series originally produced by London Weekend Television and broadcast on ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new version of the series began 27 May 2012 on Sky Arts. Conceived, written, a ...
'' in 1997, spoke about using the landscape above Dollar as inspiration for his novels (in particular ''
A Song of Stone'').
* The biologist
Alan Grafen
*
Patrick Syme was an art master at Dollar Academy, and died in Dollar.
* Internationalist footballer,
Steven Caulker's eligibility to play for Scotland is from his grandmother Jessie hailing from Dollar
* Rev
James Aitken Wylie, minister of the Secessionist Church in Dollar from 1831 to 1843
* Jazz pianist
Fergus McCreadie
Fergus McCreadie (born 12 July 1997) is a Scottish jazz pianist and composer. His style revolves around a fusion of contemporary jazz with Scottish folk music. He has released four albums as leader of a jazz trio, piano trio and two EPs to date. ...
grew up in Dollar.
Sport
Dollar is home to the Dollar Glen Football Club, the Dollar Golf Club—a 9-hole
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
course (formarly 18 but was closed and reopended as 9 holes just before lockdown) notable for its steep inclines and lack of bunkers (a decision made by
Ben Sayers),
a
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
club, a
squash club, a
bowling
Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...
club, and a
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
club. The Ochil Hills that overlook Dollar provide opportunities for mountain biking.
Religion

There are three churches, one
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...
, one
Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church (; ) is a Christian denomination in Scotland. Scotland's third largest church, the Scottish Episcopal Church has 303 local congregations. It is also an Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, ecclesiastical provi ...
and Ochil Hills Community Church which meets in the Civic Centre.
Twin towns
Dollar is twinned with the French town of
La Ville-aux-Dames
La Ville-aux-Dames () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Indre-et-Loire department
The following is a list of the 272 communes of the Indre-et-Loire department of Franc ...
, which lies just outside
Tours
Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...
in the
Loire Valley
The Loire Valley (, ), spanning , is a valley located in the middle stretch of the Loire river in central France, in both the administrative regions Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire. The area of the Loire Valley comprises about . It is r ...
.
References
External links
Historical information on Dollar from the Vision of Britain website
{{Authority control
Hillfoots Villages
Mining communities in Scotland
Parishes in Clackmannanshire
Towns in Clackmannanshire