historical district within the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Situated on both sides of the Red River, it comprises the former cities of East Kildonan and West Kildonan and the former municipalities of Old Kildonan and North Kildonan, all of which were originally established in the 1870s. Kildonan was one of the historical districts of the Red River Settlement, founded by the Scottish philanthropist Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of Selkirk, who named it in 1817 for Kildonan in Sutherlandshire, Scot., from which many of the early settlers had come. In 1851 the first Presbyterian Church in western Canada was established there. All four Kildonans were absorbed into Winnipeg in 1972.