The village lies at the eastern end of the "Hillfoot towns" which skirt the southern edge of the Ochil Hills.

Whilst the building was always low, this effect has been emphasised due to the raising of the road level (normal when ancient routes were macadamed in the early 19th century).

[5] Rev Robert Sharp served 1677 until 1697 and is noteworthy for having had his property robbed in 1679 and for being removed from his position in 1697 for "contumacy" (disobedience).

The nine-hole Cowden course was opened by Miss Ella Christie, who provided 55 acres (22 hectares) of land, on 28 May 1908.

The Cowden estate lies just to the south of the higher ground known as the Ochil Hills,[8] on the main road (A91) just over 1 mile (1.5 kilometres) west of the Pool of Muckhart.

The girls' mother, Alison Philp Christie, was in poor health and Isabella Thornburn, an elderly woman, was their nurse.

[16][21] In 1893 the castle was extended by the prodigious Glasgow architects Honeyman and Keppie,[22] probably at the request of Ella, given her father's health.

When in his late seventies, Mr. Christie dyed his moustache and proposed marriage to a woman fifty years younger.

[16] Miss Christie ordered a stained glass window erected in honour of her father removed from Muckhart Church and she moved to 19 Buckingham Terrace for the duration of the trial.

[21] Several witnesses provided an abundance of testimony regarding Mr. Christie's bizarre behaviour in the years after his illness and the unfairness of the will.

She then returned to the United States and visited New Orleans before moving on to Baton Rouge, where she was the guest of her second cousin, Miss Katherine Marion Hill (b.

25 December 1856, d. 25 February 1949) at her mansion on Lafayette Street, and met her American cousins, the descendants of John Hill.

Moving west, she visited the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara, California, where she met the widow of Robert Louis Stevenson.

After Chicago, she stopped at Niagara Falls, and then moved on to Massachusetts, where she visited Plymouth, a community of the Shakers, and the homes and graves of her favourite American authors.

Miss Christie, after her visit to Japan in 1907, caused a Japanese garden, designed by Taki Handa,[34] a student at Doshisha University, Japan who was studying at Studley College, around 1908, to be planted at Cowden on a 7-acre (3-hectare) site,[20] which she named Shah-rak-uenor, meaning place of 'pleasure and delight'.

[35] Although the Japanese garden[36] fell into ruin, it supported hundreds of rhododendrons, brought over from the Himalayas to brighten up the estate in the 19th century.

They had adjacent ponds to float larger logs into the saws to cleverly avoid weight problems.

[42] Later on, the Douglas family sold the mill to Bishop James Paton text[43] who subsequently passed ownership of the farm to Archibald Campbell, 5th Earl of Argyll in about 1571.

Comprises three blocks at different angles, all pantiled, disused 20' overshot wheel at N., wooden arms, cast-iron outer frame.

"[41] It is believed to have one of Scotland's largest overshot waterwheels which was renovated into working condition by the current owner several years ago but is no longer in operation.

There you can find a second water channel running alongside the building which exits under a small bridge and into the River Devon 1666 There is an inscription on the side wall of the Mill house "M.I.M.

[44] As featured by Lyndsay Cooper in her internship there in 2010 Other photos of the Mill show the wheel without buckets (later restored by Dr Alf Wilde but since rotten away and removed).

Richard & Morna launched the converted Mill buildings as a guest house and children's holiday centre in 1966.

[47] Muckhart Mill was a children's holiday home and the owners often get visitors who used to stay here over the summer, riding ponies and swimming in the river.

Very large, about 35' high, square plan, stone-built with battered walls, three arched fireholes; operated by the Carron Company.

He used a diamond-tipped stylus which had earlier been presented to him in Edinburgh by James Cunningham, 14th Earl of Glencairn: At Carron Ironworks We cam na here to view your warks, In hopes to be mair wise, But only, lest we gang to hell, It may be nae surprise: But when we tirl'd at your door Your porter dought na hear us; Sae may, shou'd we to Hell's yetts come, Your billy Satan sair us!

[51] The Mill is listed as "Blairbane" in the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Fife and Kinross 1855, sheet xxi[52] The bridge has a masonic eye painted on the right hand side of the upstream facing part.

Joe Bell had the unfortunate claim to fame of being the last man publicly hanged in Scotland (in Perth)[54] for shooting a baker [2] Utterly destitute, with not a penny in the world to buy a piece of bread, poacher Joseph Bell, 29, borrowed a shotgun and next day turned highwayman, waylaying farmer Alexander McEwan, 40, on his horse and cart at Blairingone in Perthshire.

[3] [4] A full account of the trial and execution can be found in an article in The Alloa Advertiser here: Alloa Advertiser: walk past vicars bridge murder [5] Back on the main road to Dollar the small farm known as Shelterhall was bought in a derelict state by the Longmuir brothers of Bay City Rollers fame in the late 1970s and temporarily became a place of "pilgrimage" for some years during the period of "Rollermania", which was rife at that time.

The Clackmannanshire Council has confirmed the recognition of public rights-of-way in the Muckhart area including the ancient coach road section known as the Cinder Path, linking the village to the primary school.