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Dollar (Scottish Gaelic: Dolair) is a small town with a population of 2,800 people in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. It is 12 miles (19 kilometres) east of Stirling.
The name is unrelated to the dollar currency name. Possible interpretations are that Dollar is derived from Doilleir, an Irish and Scots Gaelic word meaning dark and gloomy, or from various words in Pictish: 'Dol' (field) 'Ar' (arable) or Dol (valley) Ar (high).[2] Another derivation is from Dolar, 'haugh place' (cf Welsh dôl 'meadow'. This word was borrowed from British or Pictish into Scottish Gaelic as dail 'water-meadow, haugh').[3] John Everett-Heath derives it as 'Place of the Water Meadow' from the Celtic dôl 'water meadow' and ar 'place'.[4]
A photochrom of Castle Campbell, Dollar, ScotlandOld houses in Dollar
The 500-year-old Castle Campbell stands overlooking the town, sitting on a forward projection of rock on the south side of the Ochil Hills. The castle was the lowland seat of the Duke of Argyll, where Mary, Queen of Scots once stayed in the 16th century.
The original town (of which parts still survive) stands on the sloping ground beneath the castle, in what is now the northeast section of the town. Buildings here are generally stone built and two stories high. The oldest buildings date from the mid-17th century and several 18th-century buildings exist. Development spread to the west and south through the 19th century.
Around 1840 the construction of a new road to Muckhart on the lower ground south of the original route, created the current main east–west street. This quickly became the new "town centre" and the focus of shops and public activity.
A map of Dollar from 1945
The town has two war memorials, one for each world war. In the grounds of Dollar Academy, a bronze figure with outstretched hands by George Henry Paulin faces westwards and commemorates the fallen of the First World War. This also has names added for Northern Ireland.[5]
A small museum run by volunteers contains a collection of local items, and much information about the former Devon Valley Railway, which closed to passengers in 1964. The town is now largely a dormitory community for people who work in Stirling and further afield (e.g. Glasgow and Edinburgh).
It is one of the Hillfoots Villages, situated between the Ochil Hills range to the north and the River Devon to the south. Dollar is 12 miles (19 kilometres) east of Stirling on the A91 road to St Andrews. The Devon Valley Railway linking Alloa and Kinross closed to passengers in 1964 and to freight in 1973.
Attempts were made to mine lead and copper in Dollar Glen from the 18th century and possibly earlier, but these were of no economic significance. Coal mining in the area began around the same time and, until 1973, supplied the Kincardine Power Station, and later, the Longannet Power Station with coal from the Upper Hirst seam. A tiny private non-NCB coal mine operated from the Harviestoun estate from the mid-1970s, partly filling the gap that the closed NCB left, whilst there was still local demand for coal.
In common with the other Hillfoots Villages, the textiles industry played an important part in the town's development. The Harviestoun Brewery was established west of Dollar in 1985, before its move to Alva.
From 1891 to 1975 the town had its own council.[6] It is now within Clackmannanshire council area. It forms part of the Clackmannanshire East ward which includes Clackmannan, Comely Bank, Dollar & Muckhart. In the 2017 local elections, residents of the ward elected three councillors—one each from the Scottish National Party, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.[7]
Lavinia Malcolm, Provost of Dollar between 1913 and 1919, was both the first lady provost and first female town councillor in Scotland (see Dollar Town Council 1891–1975).
Alan Longmuir, of Bay City Rollers fame, lived just east of Dollar and owned and operated the Dollar Arms public house for a time.
In the late 1990s, Michael Kulas and Saul Davies, musicians in the English rock group James, also resided and worked out of the old Tea House Cottage, now known as Brewlands, next to Castle Campbell.
Dollar is home to the Dollar Glen Football Club, the Dollar Golf Club—an 18-hole golf course notable for its steep inclines and lack of bunkers (a decision made by Ben Sayers),[12] a tennis club, a squash club, a bowling club, and a cricket club. The Ochil Hills that overlook Dollar provide opportunities for mountain biking.
