Airthey Castle lies just to the East of Bridge of Allan, 2 miles (3 km) NE of Stirling, and today forms the administrative centre for the University of Stirling.

Built in 1791 to a design by Robert Adam (1728 - 92) for the evangelist Robert Haldane (1764 - 1842), whose family had owned the estate since 1759. The estate includes two standing stones which may mark a battlefield where King Kenneth I (d.858) defeated the Picts to unite Scotland in 839. The estate is first mentioned in 1146 in a charter of King David I (c.1080 - 1153). In 1368, the estate ceased to be crown property and passed to the Keeper of Stirling Castle. In 1472, the estates passed to the Grahams of Montrose. In 1645, the manor house was burned to the ground by Archibald Campbell (1598 - 1661), the covenanting Marquis of Argyll, in reprisal for the burning of his nearby Castle Campbell by the royalist Grahams. John Hope of Hopetoun (d.1682) bought the estate in 1678, sold it to the Dundas family in 1706, who themselves sold it to the Haldanes in 1759. Robert Haldane improved the estate, created the loch and landscaped the grounds. Haldane sold the estate in 1798 so he could further his evangelism and it was purchased by Sir Robert Abercromby (1740 - 1827) who further developed the estate and the surrounding area. Abercromby discovered an ancient whale's skeleton at Airthrey in 1819 (the seashore had originally run along the base of the Ochil Hills). Sir Robert gifted the skeleton to the Natural History Museum at Edinburgh University.

The Castle was used as a Maternity Hospital during World War II, before being purchased by Stirling County Council and later passing to the University.