Farmers get preview of new auction mart

Stirling’s farming community was given a preview of the facilities at the soon-to-open Central Auction Mart at Kildean, Stirling in August 1966

Operators Livestock Marts Ltd believed the £500,000 mart would include features making it one of the most modern in the country.

The Observer said under one roof on the 21-acre site would be everything for the farmer and his family. The mart would be able to accommodate 3000 cattle, 15,000 sheep, 1000 pigs, 5000 calves and 200 dairy cattle.

Grain merchants booths and an auction mart for poultry and small agricultural equipment was provided, and the centre was to house 21 units for shops and offices and eight units for storerooms and offices for agricultural equipment.

A petrol station, landscape garden area, restaurant and possibly a hotel were also part of the plans.

The new facility, with its 1000-space car park, was to replace two markets in Stirling operated by United Auctions (Scotland) Ltd both of which occupied a total of just eight acres, half the area of the new market.

September 21, 1966, was given as the opening date for the market which, said the paper, would be capable of holding demonstrations on the open green spaces behind the market.

`It is also visualised that the farmer’s wife will come to do her shopping at the market and then dine with her husband in the restaurant which can also be used for social functions,’ added the paper.

In June, 2008, it was announced the Kildean mart and its equivalent at Perth were to merge at the new Stirling Agricultural Centre, off the A84 Stirling to Callander Road.

Homes have now been built on much of the land occupied by the market.