FALKIRK, A Parliamentary and municipal burgh and market-town of Stirling shire, Scotland, about three miles southwest of its seaport. Grangemouth, on the Firth of Forth, and 24 miles northwest of Edinburgh (Map: Scotland, E 4). Falkirk consists principally of a long, irregular street. There is an equestrian statue to the Duke of Wellington, erected in 1854. its notable buildings are the town hall, county buildings, art school, free library, and cottage hospital. Its parish church has some ancient monuments, but was itself rebuilt in the year 1810. The church, church lands, and bar ony belonged of old to the Abbey of Holyrood. It is the centre of the Scotch trade, the principal works being at Carron. There are several extensive collieries in the neighborhood, as well as distilleries. Its three annual cattle fairs (trysts), once so famous, have practically been supplanted by a weekly market. Falkirk is
a station on the North British Railway, and is connected with the east and west coasts by the Forth and Clyde Canal. Population, municipal burgh, in 1901, 29,271. The town is of great antiquity, having been a place of some impor tance as early as the eleventh century. On a small eminence near Falkirk an important en was fought July 22, 1298, between the English under Edward I. and the Scottish army under William Wallace (q.v.). The Scottish forces were outnumbered nearly three to one, and were driven from the field with the loss of 20,000 men. Wallace was forced to seek concealment, and Edward's hold on the southern part of Scot land was strengthened. Near Falkirk, January 17, 174(1, Charles Edward, the young Pretender, defeated an English army under General Hawley.