Kincardine ( ; ) or Kincardine-on-Forth is a town on the north shore of the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is a firth in Scotland, an inlet of the North Sea that separates Fife to its north and Lothian to its south. Further inland, it becomes the estuary of the River Forth and several other rivers. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate ...

, in

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The town was given the status of a

burgh of barony A burgh of barony was a type of Scottish town (burgh). Burghs of barony were distinct from royal burghs, as the title was granted to a landowner who, as a tenant-in-chief, held his estates directly from the crown. (In some cases, they might also ...

in 1663. It was at one time a reasonably prosperous minor port. The townscape retains many good examples of Scottish vernacular buildings from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, although it was greatly altered during the construction of Kincardine Bridge in 1932–1936. It is in the civil parish of Tulliallan.

Etymology

The name ''Kincardine'', recorded in 1540 as ''Kincarne'', may be of either

Pictish Pictish is an extinct Brittonic Celtic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from late antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geog ...

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

origin (It is also recorded as ''Kincarnyne''). The second element is Pictish ''*carden'', conceivably loaned into Gaelic, meaning "woodland" or perhaps "enclosure, encampment" (

Middle Welsh Middle Welsh (, ) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh (). Literature and history Middle Welsh is ...

''cardden''). The first element is the Gaelic ''ceann'', "head end", but in view of the second element's "Pictish" distribution, it is most appropriately seen as an adaptation or translation of the cognate Pictish ''*pen'', of the same meaning ( Welsh ''pen''), and the original form may have been ''*Pencarden''.

Transport

Kincardine Bridge runs south from Kincardine. It is the main crossing-point of the

between the Queensferry Crossing and

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 ...

. Kincardine Bridge used to be a swing bridge and opened to large ships, but this was closed in a final ceremony in 1988. The bridge had seven spans made of steel. There was a large control room at the top of the bridge, this used to be manned to allow the operators to open the bridge to large ships and river traffic. In 2005, it was given Category A listed status by

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its und ...

. During the last several decades, the town has suffered from increased congestion due to the increase of vehicles using the bridge. This heavy congestion was reduced in 2005 by the opening of an eastern bypass connecting the Kincardine bridge with the A985

Inverkeithing Inverkeithing ( ; ) is a coastal town, parish and historic Royal burgh in Fife, Scotland. The town lies on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, northwest of Edinburgh city centre and south of Dunfermline. A town of ancient origin, Inverke ...

Forth Road Bridge The Forth Road Bridge is a suspension bridge in Central Belt, east central Scotland. The bridge opened in 1964 and at the time was the List of longest suspension bridge spans, longest suspension bridge in the world outside the United States. ...

artery. In 2008 the western section of the town was bypassed with the opening of the Clackmannanshire Bridge.

Police

Kincardine is also the location of the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan Castle on the outskirts of the town.

People

The chemist and physicist,

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 ...

, was born in Kincardine in 1842. *

* Shirley Henderson * Greg Shields * Stewart Kennedy * Jim Lister * Clark Devlin

References

External links

Local information about Kincardine from the Kincardine Local History Group

{{Authority control Towns in Fife Burghs