The village was built in connection with the Forth or Oakley Ironworks (1846), now all gone along with the colliery industry. The ironworks, which ceased production many years ago, had six furnaces, with stacks high, and the engine-house was built with walls to comprise of stone below the surface of the ground. Subsequent to their use in the ironworks, the buildings were used as a sawmill producing rough timber for railway sleepers, fence posts and the like. Comrie Colliery closed in 1986, and the village took many years to recover from this major employer's demise.