Things you didn't know about... Kincardineshire

You can thank Kincardineshire for punctures...
The Victorian inventor Robert Thomson came from Kincardineshire. Among his numerous mechanical innovations, he designed the first pneumatic rubber tyre.

...and some unusual dishes too!
The deep-fried Mars Bar, an infamous Scottish culinary speciality, was first created in a fish and chip shop in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire.

Some nasty-sounding illnesses are just a few letters away!
If you rearrange the letters of Kincardineshire you end up with "hacked inner iris" or "rancid Irish knee" (the words, not the ailments!).

Foxes in Kincardineshire can sleep a little more easily at night
The most northerly pack of foxhounds in the UK is based in Kincardineshire. Formed in 1997, the Kincardinshire Hunt is one of the few private packs of hounds in the UK. Fortunately for foxes, since the hunting ban, they now devote their energies to drag hunting.

Kincardine isn't in Kincardineshire
The county town of Kincardine no longer exists. There is a town called Kincardine O'Neil, but that is in the county of Aberdeen. Meanwhile, Kincardine on Forth is in Fife!

WThere were roads before there was traffic
Kincardineshire has some ancient drovers' roads running across it. One of the best known is the Causey Mounth. The route has linked Stonehaven with Aberdeen for nearly a thousand years. Because of the boggy terrain in much of the area, the route is built as an elevated causeway of rock in places.

Kincardineshire inspires great writers to produce their best work
One of Scotland's most popular books, Sunset Song, by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, is set in Kincardineshire. The vivid description of childbirth in the book has led some female readers to suggest that it couldn't possibly have been written by a man...

Kincardineshire has a distinctive dialect
The Doric dialect, with its distinctive accent, is spoken in the north-east of Scotland around Kincardineshire. It borrows words from Norse and Scots Gaelic.

Japan and Kincardineshire are inextricably linked
James Murdoch was brought up in Kincardineshire and later became a teacher in Japan. His huge book, History of Japan, which he wrote in several volumes at the beginning of the 20th century, was the first comprehensive history of Japan written in the English language.