"Foot of the Ochils" Dollar by Orchid

Dollar is a small prosperous town at the base of the Ochil Hils, about 10 miles from Stirling.

The town has an interesting social divide, between those that send their offspring to the éxclusive Dollar Academy, and those too honest and intelligent to do so.

There is also the pleasure of small town shops, the likes of which city dwellers see but rarely nowadays - a real butcher, in his striped smock, selling home made sausages, and the choicest cuts, especially the special order Xmas turkeys!

But as a base for walks up into the hills, past the golf course via the Burn of Care and the Burn of Sorrow, to the well preserved Castle Campbell it can't be beat

Burn of Care

Opinion is divided on how this little town got a name now best known as our world's only superpower's overvalued currency.

Most appealing theory is that it is a corruption of 'dolour' or sadness, and relates to the pining and wasting away of a fair damsel resident in the aforesaid Castle Campbell, whose lover went off to find fortune in the wider world, but alas, was never to return.

On the way up to Castle Campbell, one passes through the narrow chasm of the Burn of Care

Castle Campbell

Ruined Castle Campbell is the destination of the pleasant walk up through Dollar town, and up Dollar Glen.

It has expansive views across the Central Plains of Scotland to the Firth of Forth, and westward along the Ochils to the sharp crags bearing Stirling Castle and the William Wallace Monument.

During the summer months you can even get Devonshire (shouldn't it be Clackmannanshire) teas on the manicured lawns