The gently-rolling farmland surrounding Loch Leven gives way to steep, more rugged terrain at the outskirts of the county.

In 1667 Commissioners of Supply were established for each shire, which would serve as the main administrative body for the area until the creation of county councils in 1890.

Elected county councils were established in 1890 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, taking most of the functions of the commissioners (which were eventually abolished in 1930).

[10] Due to its low population, the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 combined the county councils of Kinross-shire and neighbouring Perthshire for most purposes in 1930.

(Scotland) Act 1994 saw the regions and districts created in 1975 abolished and replaced with council areas providing all local government services.

[16] The county suffered a decline in population in the 19th and 20th centuries, as its inhabitants migrated to the cities to find work in manufacturing, etc.

However, in recent years, construction of the M90 motorway north of the Forth Road Bridge has resulted in the area becoming more prominent.

Tourism has increased, with visitors attracted by the unspoiled country villages and gently rolling hills reaching the shores of Loch Leven.

In addition, it outperformed both the Perth and Kinross area and Scotland averages in economic performance.

The county was anciently divided into a number of parishes: Cleish, Orwell (containing the market town of Milnathort), Kinross and Portmoak were entirely in Kinross-shire.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 created a boundary commission to ensure that all civil parishes lay within a single county.

Kinross-shire is bisected north–south by the M90 motorway, which links Kinross to Perth in the north and Dunfermline in the south.

Due to its small population, it was never a constituency in its own right: instead it alternated with Clackmannanshire, a member being returned for one county at one parliament and for the other at the next.

The Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832 merged the two counties into a single constituency, Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire.