Our Area

The Parish Boundaries of Forth St Paul’s Church encompasses all the countryside around Forth.

The village of Forth is surrounded by smaller villages. Forth St Paul’s Church building is situated in the middle of Main Street in the centre of Forth. The main villages which surround Forth are Wilsontown, Braehead and Climpy with the smaller populations in Stobwood, Haywood and all farms and houses in between.

Forth -  which can also be called 'The Forth’, is thought to mean ' the open air'. Forth, with a population of around 3500, stands 1000 feet above sea level. It is surrounded by moorland and because of this is very ‘windy’. Recently the Main Street in Forth has had a ‘make over’ with new pavements, mini roundabout and traffic lights. The village itself has been decorated with tubs of flowers and in 2009 won a silver award in ‘Beautiful Scotland’ large village category. Forth was also Calor Village of the Year in South of Scotland as well as being winner of the Jim Murdie award for sustainability. So as you can see, Forth is a thriving community with a great community spirit!

Climpy_ The small settlement of Climpy is located a mile (1.5 km) northwest of Forth . Climpy has been associated with deep mining for coal since the 19th century and more recently open-cast mining. The open-cast site which lay to the southwest has been filled in and part forms the Black Law Wind Farm, but the majority of the area has been developed as a wet grassland for breeding birds.

Black Law Wind Farm - Black Law became the largest operating wind farm in the UK when it was officially opened in 2006. The 54 giant 2.3mw turbines are now operational and can be seen from miles around.

Wilsontown_The village of Wilsontown came into existence because of the Wilsontown Ironworks which was established in 1779. The works closed in 1842, then followed coal mining which continued until 1955. The next industry to come to Wilsontown was forestry which is still ongoing. The population of the village has fluctuated throughout the years and now consists of one street with private housing.

Braehead – as the name suggests this village sits at the top of the ‘brae’ about 2miles (3km) south of  Forth. Braehead has a thriving community, the Primary School has been rebuilt and the Last Shift Inn has been extensively refurbished. A lot of private housing has been built in the village and the Village Hall hosts many village activities.