The History of Kincardine

Kincardine on Forth is a large trading port village that can be found in the region of Fife in Scotland. The locals here call the village just Kincardine and you can find it more specifically on the northern side of the shore of Firth of Forth where the estuary narrows to a river.

The name of the village is also associated with the Kincardine Bridge, which was built in the early twentieth century to provide transport for cars over the Forth. Quite interesting is the fact that in 1936 it was considered the longest swing bridge in the whole of Europe, but since 1988 it has not been swung again. The bridge enabled ships of varying sizes to go underneath and head up to other towns like Stirling. Today not many ships go upstream under the Kincardine Bridge, mainly just a few small boats will venture that far.

Kincardine Castle is one of the famous attractions in Scotland, you probably want to adjust your trip and make sure you stop by Kincardine Castle to take a look at its beauty as well as its gorgeous gardens.

Today Kincardine is a picturesque village with a lot of history behind it, which you can see just by walking around. Kincardine started off in the 19th century as a small river port, which people on the steam ferry crossing the Forth would visit or stop-off at for a few minutes. The rest of the region surrounding Kincardine was known as mining towns or villages where coal was mined. Things changed in the early twentieth century when the new railway line was built as it cut Kincardine off from the river.

The year 1936 saw another change with the official opening of Kincardine Bridge. As a result the road leading to the bridge cut off part of the village, changing the geography of the whole area. Then, later on, another road was built on the opposite side of the village again cutting off a section of the village. Twenty years later in 1952 a power station was built in Kincardine to produce a substantial amount of electricity for the entire country using the coal that was mined by towns near Kincardine.

With the introduction of the power station also came the need for a number of workers to keep the station up and running, a lot of which were people from outside of Kincardine. That was when the three tower blocks were built, which you can see today, to house everyone from the power station. Later, Longannet power station was built to help produce the energy needed by the country, today however, the coal-fueled power stations are not necessary and have since closed down.

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