Kilmadock
Community
Plan
Doune
Deanston
Buchany
Argaty
Draft plan: Kilmadock today
Our community straddles the River Teith, with elevated banks on both the north and south. The relatively flat carse progressively ascends to the north and the Braes of Doune until it reaches its peak at Uamh Beag. The opening of the Bridge of Teith in 1535 put the community at the crossroads of the great roads from Edinburgh to Fort William and Glasgow to Perth. The same bridge is still in use today (although widened in 1866) and is the community’s only connection across the Teith. We lie between the M9 motorway, less than ten minutes drive to the east, and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, ten minutes drive to the west.
Headline statistics
|
Climate 2022 |
🌞 30.8ºC High |
❄️ –9.4ºC Low |
☔️ 217 mm Annual Rainfall |
🌤️ 176 kW/m2 Annual Sunshine |
|
Population 2020 |
👥 2,706 Total |
🧒 19.7% Under 16 |
🧓 19.3% 65+ |
🏠 1,177 Households |
| Trend since 2001 |  |
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|
Buildings 2022 |
🏘️ 1,185 Homes |
Ratio of Homes by Council Tax Band |
📊 | 📜 | ||
|
31% A–C |
24% D–E |
45% F–H |
143 Non-domestic properties |
151 Listed buildings |
||
|
Energy 2020 |
⚡️ 3,314 MWh Annual domestic electricity use |
🔥 10,694 MWh Annual domestic |
🌡 45,959 MWh Annual heat demand (domestic and business) |
|
Local jobs 2021 |
📈 88% Private Sector |
🗳️ 12% Public sector |
🪪 48.5% Jobs available as percentage of working age population |
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Vulnerable groups 2022/23 |
👵👴 | Older people |
39 get pension credit payments 52 get housing benefit payments |
| 👧👦 | Young people |
88 in low income families 24 in low income out of work families |
|
| 🦼🌻 | Disabled people |
46 get attendance allowance 87 get personal independence payments 26 get disability living allowance |
Community action and volunteering
Self-reliance is an intrinsic tradition of rural communities, and Kilmadock is no exception. There are numerous examples of local community action and volunteering. Whether they have been running for generations or relatively new, collectively they are at the heart of local life and what makes Kilmadock a distinctive place. Collectively thousands of hours annually are invested by volunteers. On behalf of the community, we’d like to thank them all for their past, current and future efforts.
| Churches Community Action for Deanston Christmas Lights Deanston Community Centre Deanston Football Club Doune and Deanston Youth Project Doune Castle AFC Doune Castle Bowling Club Doune Community Woodland Group Doune Cricket Club Doune Curling Club Doune Gala Committee |
Doune Hanging Baskets Doune Pipe Band Doune Post Office Doune Primary School Parent Council Doune Ukulele Group Emergency defibrillators Information & Heritage Centre Kilmadock Allotments Committee Kilmadock Christmas Fair Kilmadock Climate Action Kilmadock Community Council Kilmadock Development Trust |
Kilmadock Krafters The Kilmadock Society Kilmadock Windfarm Trust Lodge St.James No.171 Moray Park Public Toilets Remembrance Sunday Retained Firefighters Rescuers of Old Kilmadock (ROOK) Rural Hall The Bridge Community Newspaper |
Community views
The first step in creating this Community Plan involved collecting the initial views of people from across the community. What’s good, what needs protected, what needs to change, and what ideas were out there. This was done through a combination of paper surveys, an online mapping tool, and events. Regardless of method, the focus was around three key questions:
- What do you like about the community?
- What do you not like about the community?
- What ideas or changes would improve the community?
In the tables below are the collective views of what people like and dislike about Kilmadock today, summarised in categories. The ideas or changes suggested were used to set the ten main goals and contents of the Community Plan.
Likes |
👍 |
(August 2022) |
| Topic | Mentions | Including… |
| Natural Space | 58 | proximity to nature and wildlife, particularly Doune Ponds, the castle, River Teith, Old Kilmadock and mill lade |
| Facilities & Amenities | 57 | having good local services on our doorstep, Doune Library, Doune Post Office, the health centre, schools, pharmacy, local businesses, cafés, fire service, an ATM in Doune, Doune & Deanston Youth Project, the Rural Hall, bowling club, Deanston Community Centre |
| Identity & Belonging | 31 | our rural location and community spirit, “not too big, not too small”, being a friendly place which people take pride in, mutual support, retaining village atmospheres |
| Play & Recreation | 25 | having playparks in Doune and Deanston villages, Moray Park being a multipurpose space and now with public toilets, McAlpine Park in Deanston, a choice of sports clubs, angling on the Teith |
| Walking & Cycling | 23 | local walks at Doune Ponds, Doune Castle, Blair Drummond, the old railway line path to Dunblane good for walking and cycling alike |
| Built Environment | 9 | our historic buildings, particularly Doune Castle, Deanston Distillery, the Bridge of Teith, the former church clocktower, Argaty shelter |
| Care & Maintenance | 9 | community efforts of seasonal planting and annual hanging baskets, relatively cleanliness of the villages |
| Socialising | 6 | range of community groups for a variety of ages, annual community events |
| Community Action | 6 | many admirable examples of volunteering and community action delivering improvements |
| Traffic & Parking | 5 | proximity to motorway network, availability of free parking |
Dislikes |
👎 |
August 2022 |
| Topic | Mentions | Including… |
| Traffic & Parking | 51 | speed and volume of traffic on roads, lack of parking in central Doune, discourteous parking (including visiting coaches), speed bumps on Balkerach Street, on street parking on Doune Main street impeding traffic, noise from traffic, difficulty to cross roads, lack of electric vehicle charging, lack of traffic policing, narrow pavements |
| Care & Maintenance | 28 | littering, dog fouling, noise and other nuisance from motocross track, debris accumulating on trunk road footpaths, uneven pavements, limited snow clearance in winter |
| Walking & Cycling | 24 | danger of crossing Bridge of Teith, growth of vegetation encroaching on paths, lack of traffic-free cycle track to Callander, crossing or having to use the A84 puts people off walking and cycling, lack of traffic-free path to windfarm, limited safe walking routes out of Deanston, new for more accessible paths, root-broken tarmac on railway path, ability to access banks of Teith north of Deanston |
| Built Environment | 18 | long-term vacancy and state of disrepair of the former parish church in Doune, condition of historic buildings on Main Street in Doune and Teith Road in Deanston |
| Public Transport | 17 | no bus to Dunblane or Bridge of Allan, limited choice of transport if you have no car, no bus shelter in Deanston, existing service between Stirling and Callander only hourly and finishes mid-evening, unreliability of bus services |
| Facilities & Amenities | 9 | closure of Deanston Shop and Post Office, having to travel to Doune from Deanston for services, limited accommodation and restaurant options at night, limited opening hours of Doune Post Office |
| Natural Space | 7 | smell from sewage works both in proximity to river, overgrown or poor care of woodland paths |
| Play & Recreation | 7 | limited type and poor quality of some equipment of playparks in Deanston, condition of Doune school playground |
| Feeling Safe | 5 | antisocial behaviour in evenings, particularly at Doune Ponds or Moray Park |
Locally significant land and buildings
There are a number of buildings and areas of land that are a significant part of our history and/or play an important role in the community’s daily life. These are spread across Kilmadock. A summary of locations is listed below.
| Category | Name | |||
| Community building |
DDYP Youth Hub Deanston Community Centre Information & Heritage Centre |
Muir Hall Rural Hall |
||
| Energy | Braes of Doune Windfarm | |||
| Historic assets and places |
Argaty bus shelter Doune Castle Deanston War Memorial Doune War Memorial Former Parish Church |
Lady Muir Clock Mercat Cross Old Kilmadock cemetery Teith Bridge David Stirling memorial |
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| Local centres | Central Doune | Deanston Shop | ||
| Natural places |
Deanston community meadow Deanston community woodland Doune Ponds Nature Reserve |
Kilmadock Community Allotments Lundie Burn community woodland Ardoch crossing |
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| Play, recreation and sport |
Doune Castle Bowling Club Doune Cricket Club Leny Road playpark Mill Lade bridge |
Moray Park Teith Road playpark McAlpine Park |
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| Public services |
Deanston Primary School Doune Community Fire Station Doune Health Centre Doune Library |
Doune Primary School & Nursery Moray Park Public Toilets Woodside Pharmacy |
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Draft Plan: quick links
Acknowledgements
On behalf of the community and in partnership with Kilmadock Community Council, Kilmadock Development Trust is guiding the process to create the plan. A number of other organisations are supporting the Community Plan development, for more information click here.
