Dollar has lots of fascinating history and lots of fantastic buildings to see.
This Cache brings you to the Dollar Parish Church Hall (Burnside Hall).
History of Dollar
At the beginning of the 19th century, Dollar’s population was around 500, most houses being concentrated in the Old Town, Upper Mains and Lower Mains. The present Back Road was the main road from Stirling to Kinross.
Self-sufficient in most trades, the village also had a bleachworks, some small coalmines and a woollen mill. The school was a single-storey house.
Enormous changes followed, The first was the building of the Turnpike Road (now the Main Road), rapidly followed by the building of Dollar Academy in 1818 and the feuing out of the New Town. By 1841, the population had increased to 1500. The Old Kirk was too small and the present Parish Church was built. The completion of the Devon Valley Railway in 1871 linked east and west Scotland.
As Dollar Academy grew, education became the main industry,
The Academy continued to attract new residents to Dollar and, particularly from the 1950’s, new housing increased the size of the village. It is convenient for commuting to much of Central Scotland. A devastating fire in the Academy in 1961 gutted the Playfair building. It was rebuilt inside the original shell with three storeys of classrooms instead of the original two.
The Queen visited Dollar in 1963 and left by train, but the following year, as part of the Beeching cuts, the railway closed to passengers.
Strathdevon Primary School replaced the old Board School in 1964. Dollar Mine closed in 1973 and the railway line was taken up and replaced by a walkway.