page_title: Stirlingshire
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Stirlingshire / Geography
caption_attribution_description: View across Loch Lomond, Scotland, waterline looking North at Ben Lomond
context_page_description: Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.
  It borders Perthshire to the north, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian to the east, Lanarkshire to the south, and Dunbartonshire to the south-east and south-west.
context_section_description: Stirlingshire occupies a strategic position on the Forth-Clyde isthmus commanding the main overland routes from Glasgow and Edinburgh up to central and northern Scotland. 
  The western 'arm' of the county is sparsely populated and dominated by Loch Lomond, which it shares with Dunbartonshire, and the Trossachs (now a national park); Ben Lomond is located here and is the highest point in Stirlingshire at 974 m (3,196 ft), and 9th in Scotland. Several islands within Loch Lomond belong to Stirlingshire, the chief of these being Eilean nan Deargannan, Buchinch, Ceardach, Inchcruin, Inchfad, Ellanderroch, Inchcailloch and Clairinsh. On the north-eastern boundary with Perthshire a small portion of Loch Katrine lies within Stirlingshire, and also the smaller Loch Arklet can be found here. 
  Central Stirlingshire is dominated by the Carron Valley Reservoir and the Campsie Fells, Kilsyth Hills and Gargunnock Hills, with the larger towns such as Lennoxtown and Kilsyth spread out along the southern border and A891/A803 roads. The south-western corner of the county around Milngavie abuts the Greater Glasgow conurbation and contains several small reservoirs and lochs, such as Burncrooks Reservoir, Kilmannan Reservoir, Carbeth Loch, Craigallian Loch, Dumbrock Loch, Mugdock Loch, Mugdock/Craigmaddie Reservoir and Bardowie Loch.
  The area east of the M80 is generally much flatter and contains the bulk of the county's population, with the Firth of Forth providing access to the North Sea.
caption: Ben Lomond looking north across Loch Lomond at the waterline
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