The Square

On the road that leads to Menstrie from Stirling, in what would almost be the border of Clackmannan, the village known as The Square is almost hidden among the Ochil Hills and the trees. Once there, you'll notice several things: first the size of the houses and their styles. All are huge with big gardens, representing the area's rural style that goes back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We can see plaques on the houses, indicating their age. This tells us that we are in an exclusive area, once home to certain landowners (non-noble) with a lot of money and power, who chose houses in a place that was both near the cities of Stirling and Menstie, but also removed from urban life.