The Carron (Gaelic: Carrann) is a river in central Scotland, rising in the Campsie Fells and flowing along Strathcarron into the Firth of Forth. It has given its name to several locations in Stirlingshire, as well as a type of cannon, a line of bathtubs, two warships, and an island in the Southern Hemisphere.
The river rises in the Campsie Fells before flowing into the Carron Valley Reservoir and along Strathcarron. It passes by Denny, then between Larbert and Falkirk, then past Carron village. Just as the M9 motorway crosses the river, the Forth and Clyde canal joins the river. It then flows into the Forth near Grangemouth. The tributary water sources are: Carron Valley Reservoir, Avon Burn, Earl’s Burn, Auchenbowie Burn, Loch Coulter Reservoir, Bonny Water, Glencryan Burn, Red Burn, Union Canal and the Forth and Clyde Canal.
The Carron Bridge crosses the Carron at the eastern extremity of Strathcarron Forest. It was built in 1695 to replace a ford that had existed for many hundreds of years as part of an old drove road from Kilsyth to Stirling. This bridge, with its two span stone arches, looks larger than it needs to be because the river was much larger before Carron Dam was built to create a reservoir in the 1930s.