Kincardine O'Neil is on the north end of the Cairn o'Mount Pass across the Mounth, the great range of hills that lie along the south side of the valley of the River Dee.  St. Erchard founded a church here in the 5th century. A ford crossed the river and it was also the site of the first bridge across the Dee, some 300 years before one was built at Aberdeen. It was an important cross-roads on the north-south route between the rich lands of the Mearns and Moray. As a result the village saw the passage of history including Macbeth, who was killed just a few miles north on 15th August 1057; the 35,000 strong army of King Edward I on 2nd August 1296 and the King visited again with another army in 1303. The tides of history enveloped the village over the centuries. 

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In the 19th century the village was becalmed when first it was by-passed from north-south traffic by the Potarch Bridge and then from much east-west traffic by the Deeside Railway which was routed away from the village because of difficult topography which would have required two expensive bridges across the Dee. 

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You can tell from this brief history that Kincardine O'Neil was an important place in Medieval Times and less so of late. Today, however, the village is undergoing a bit of a revival. The number of houses has risen by 50% or so in the last 30 years and it is situated on the busy North Deeside Road, an important business and tourist route leading towards the Cairngorms National Park and Her Majesty the Queen's Balmoral Estate. 

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The village has a good little primary school, an excellent General Store and Post Office, a lively church, several other businesses and shops and is on a bus route with an hourly service. 

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Kincardine Estate has played an important role in the recent expansion of the village. It has constructed 21 new homes of which 19 are leased at affordable rent. More recently the attractive quality development at Durward Gardens has come about following lengthy discussions between the estate and the developer to achieve sympathetic design. 

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The estate is also working hard to provide more places for commercial opportunity.  In the past where our small incubator units have resulted in a successful business we've lost them as they moved away to bigger premises as we had nothing suitable to offer them. We are working up plans at the moment to provide a variety of units that could help keep future businesses in the community. 

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