St. Ninians is a long-standing settlement which is now a district of the city of Stirling in central Scotland. It is located approximately one mile south of the city centre.
It was originally known as Eccles (ie. 'church'), and may have been a Christian site from an unusually early date (possibly 5th or 6th century). Later called 'St. Ringan's' (a variant of St Ninian's). This church was the administrative centre for churches across the strath of the River Forth.
In the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, the retreating army of Bonnie Prince Charlie blew up the church of St. Ninians where they had been storing munitions; only the tower survived and can be seen to this day.
A few years after the Church was rebuilt it became the scene of another drama. The local landowner 'presented' a new minister, Mr Thomson of Gargunnock. He was not chosen by the heads of families and a dispute arose. After years of wrangling the Presbytery was forced to appoint him. The Moderator of Presbytery addressed these words to him
He did not give up and so was inducted.
Of the twenty-one elders of the parish, one remained loyal to the old Church, the others left its walls. They along with the majority of the people formed a 'Relief Church.'
In the disruption of 1843 a Free Church of Scotland was formed. This congregation eventually returned to the Church of Scotland and became known as St George's. In 1969 it was dissolved and the building eventually demolished to make way for housing. The Relief congregation originally at the 'toll' continues today as St Ninians[1] United Free Church of Scotland.
In recent years, the old steeple, which was built in 1734 but houses a 17th century bell, became structurally unsafe but has been restored, with funding from St. Ninians Old Parish Church, local community donations, and Historic Scotland. As it stands, this tower appears to be a late 17th to early 18th century structure, but is likely to be of much earlier origin (possibly 11th-12th century).
During the 19th century, St. Ninians' main industry was nail-making, with the main works located at the corner of Weaver Row and Main Street (known locally as Nailworks Corner). This site is now the location of a Lidl supermarket.
In the early 20th century, traffic was diverted away from the Main Street into Borestone Crescent and the Borestone Roundabout, which carries the main traffic from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Falkirk into Stirling. In the 1960s, most of this traffic was again diverted on to the Inner Relief Road from an enlarged Borestone Roundabout.
The area is served by a strip of shops and take-aways and other amenities next to the busy Borestone Roundabout, known locally as "the toll". Housing in the area is predominantly council or ex-council, with a mixture of terraced houses and flats.