County town: Kinross
Kinross-shire was one of Scotland's smallest counties, established as a sheriffdom around Loch Leven and the small burgh of Kinross.
Kinross-shire was Scotland's second-smallest county, a compact area of fertile farmland surrounding Loch Leven in central Scotland. Loch Leven Castle, on an island in the loch, was where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned from 1567 to 1568 before her famous escape — the most dramatic event in the county's history. The loch is internationally known for trout fishing, its brown trout of exceptional quality. The Lomond Hills rise to the county's north, giving fine views across the lowlands of Fife and Kinross. The county was later amalgamated with Perthshire and is now part of Perth and Kinross council area.
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland — the Old Statistical Account (1791–99) and the New Statistical Account (1834–45) — provide detailed parish-by-parish descriptions of Kinross-shire at two moments of transformation. Aubrey draws on these accounts when generating reports for Scottish locations, providing historical context specific to the parish and county.
Scotland's 33 traditional counties, established as sheriffdoms from the 12th century onward, were the administrative framework of the country until the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 replaced them with regional councils. They remain the reference framework for historical records, genealogy, and cultural identity.
This page introduces the historic county of Kinross-shire. A full Aubrey report for a location within it pulls together everything the record actually holds about that ground, from the geology beneath it to the last coin dropped in a field:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
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Kinross-shire contains 28 scheduled monuments — sites of national importance protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Browse scheduled monuments in ScotlandAn Aubrey report for a specific location in Kinross-shire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data, Statistical Account records, and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.