Kirkintilloch is situated 10 miles north of Glasgow on the southern edge of the Kelvin Valley. It is the principal town in East Dunbartonshire and has a catchment area of approximately 45,500. Kirkintilloch is known as ‘The Canal capital of Scotland’ as it’s the only town along the Forth and Clyde Canal corridor to have the canal passing through its town centre.

Kirkintilloch is East Dunbartonshire’s largest town. The main street is made up of Cowgate, which accommodates the Regent Shopping Centre and Townhead, which is joined by the Canal.

Kirkintilloch town centre is East Dunbartonshire’s main shopping centre and facilitates many shops and services used by the local catchment and surrounding area. The town centre offers visitors a variety of attractions such as the Auld Kirk Museum, which houses exhibitions and displays throughout the year and in the heart of the town centre, next to the Regent Shopping Centre, are the Regent Gardens which lead to Peel Park with its Roman and Medieval remains.

Kirkintilloch is derived from “Caerpentalloch”, a Celtic name translating as “Fort at the end of the hill”. It was first recorded, written as Kirkuntulach, in the 1200s. The fort is the Roman Antonine Wall and the hill is a volcanic drumlin, which would have offered a strategic viewpoint for miles to the West, North and East that now forms part of Peel Park in the town.

The origins of Kirkintilloch date back to Roman times. The Antonine Wall runs through the town and an excavation in the late 1950’s in Peel Park revealed the wall and ditch. In the early 13th century Kirkintilloch was allowed a regular market and in the post medieval period the town centre grew outwards from the ‘Cross’.

Kirkintilloch became an important textile centre with flax grown locally, which gave way to cotton in the early 19th century. This led to intensive development of the Cowgate and Townhead, giving the shopping area an unusually elongated town centre.

The Forth and Clyde Canal was completed in 1790 and made Kirkintilloch Scotland's first inland port. The canal supported a number of industries such as nickel works, iron founding and boat building and became famous for building many of the ‘Clyde Puffers’ between 1867 and 1945. Between 1836 and 1880 four iron foundries were established with the last – the Lion foundry – closing in 1984.

At 35 miles long, the canal passes through East Dunbartonshire from east to west, providing a route for sea-going vessels. Designed by John Smeaton across the central belt of Scotland, its construction started in 1768 and after delays due to funding problems, was completed in 1790. It can be seen at Westerton, Bishopbriggs, Cadder and Twechar, and to best effect at Kirkintilloch.

Its opening gave a great boost to the East Dunbartonshire area, when work began at Grangemouth on the Forth in 1768. After the 1920s canal traffic declined due to road and rail competition and the canal was closed to all navigations from 1st January 1963. However, during the 1970s and 1980s a powerful campaign was mounted to persuade government of the value of reopening the canal as a leisure facility.

The Forth & Clyde Canal was reopened from sea to sea in 2001 by Her Majesty the Queen. The Falkirk Wheel has been built to connect the two canals and once more allow boats to travel from the Clyde or Glasgow to Edinburgh.