The area became popular as a holiday resort following Queen Victoria's building of Balmoral Castle in nearby Deeside and many of the local shooting lodges, or "big houses" as they are known, were built at that time.

Traditionally they were occupied for "the season" of August and September, which included the all-important Glorious Twelfth, when grouse shooting started.

[1] The school's catchment area currently incorporates Strathardle, Kirkmichael, Glenshee, Blacklunans, Bridge of Cally and Enochdhu.

Until the latter part of the 20th century the catchment area also had schools at Straloch, Ballintuim, Strone of Cally, Blackwater and Glenshee but these are all closed with pupils bussed to Kirkmichael.

The east end of the graveyard, which does not have headstones or individual graves, is the site of a mass burial plot for the victims of the Black Death plague of 1348 and has never been reopened.

However it was put on the open market and sold to a property developer who then found his plan for conversion to a house was impossible, so the old kirk still sits empty and disused and is rapidly deteriorating.

The Free Kirk manse became a SYHA youth hostel which for 30 years was very popular with cyclists and hikers until it was sold in the 1950s as a private house.

The building was erected in 1958 on the site of the disused blacksmith's smithy and garden ground as a sales and repair garage and the shop occupies the former showroom area.

At one time Kirkmichael had four shops: one in the house at the school end of Williamston, which closed in the early 20th century, and three in Main Street.

Masonic Lodge Strathardle was restarted in the late 1950s after many years in abeyance and was originally located in the east end of the property known as Meadowside.

The original 1960s station was a wooden hut adjacent to Riverview containing equipment and a trailer pump with Kirkmichael Garage providing a towing vehicle as required.

The second station was on the present site in Bannerfield and was a basic Nissen Hut shed housing a Karrier Gamecock appliance but with no crew facilities.

At the junction of the A924/B950 sits the James Small (1835–1900) of Dirnanean monument, a highly-ornate Celtic cross erected in honour of a former Deputy Lieutenant of Perthshire.

Off the footpath from the village to Glenshee lies Whitefield Castle, a ruined hunting lodge built by King Malcolm Canmore in the 11th century.

Filtration was basic and the pipes were prone to freezing and in 1970 a modern system was installed by Scottish Water still drawing from the Balnald Burn which over the years has been extended to supply the whole glen including Straloch, Enochdhu, Kirkmichael, Ballintuim and Bridge of Cally villages.

Strathardle Highland Gathering & Agricultural Show is held annually in Kirkmichael on the fourth Saturday of August.

[2] The agricultural show started in the late 1950s and now attracts a large entry of quality livestock from a restricted local area.

Strathardle is named after a Pictish warrior called Ardle who was killed at Enochdhu in a battle with the Danes in the 12th century.

In 1968, the Edelweiss Hotel was built in the style of a Norwegian log lodge on the Glen Derby road and quickly became a popular venue for locals, skiers and night clubbers with buses coming in from Dundee and Perth to the regular functions.