St Fillans is a village in

Perthshire Perthshire ( locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the nor ...

in the central

highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia * So ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, in the

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Ac ...

Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross ( sco, Pairth an Kinross; gd, Peairt agus Ceann Rois) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Fife, Highland an ...

. The village lies at the eastern end of

Loch Earn Loch Earn (Scottish Gaelic, ''Loch Eire/Loch Éireann'') is a freshwater loch in the southern highlands of Scotland, in the districts of Perth and Kinross and Stirling. The name is thought to mean "Loch of Ireland", and it has been suggeste ...

, west of Comrie on the

A85 road The A85 is a major road in Scotland. It runs east from Oban along the south bank of Loch Etive, through Lochawe and Tyndrum, Crianlarich, Lochearnhead, St Fillans and Crieff before passing through Perth, where it crosses the River Tay v ...

, at the point where the

River Earn , name_etymology = , image = River Earn at Forteviot.jpg , image_size = 250px , image_caption = The River Earn viewed from Forteviot bridge. , map = , map_size = , map_caption ...

leaves the loch. St Fillans was a small

clachan A clachan ( ga, clochán or ; gd, clachan ; gv, claghan ) is a small settlement or hamlet on the island of Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland. Though many were originally kirktowns,MacBain, A. (1911) ''An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaeli ...

in the 18th century, known as Port of Lochearn, or Meikleport. In 1817 it was renamed St Fillans by Lord Gwydyr, the husband of Clementina Drummond, heiress to the Drummond Estate. The pre-

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Ch ...

, St Fillan's Chapel, whose

kirkyard In Christian countries a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster-Scots, this can also ...

is the traditional burial place of the Stewarts of Ardvorlich, lies to the south of the

River Earn , name_etymology = , image = River Earn at Forteviot.jpg , image_size = 250px , image_caption = The River Earn viewed from Forteviot bridge. , map = , map_size = , map_caption ...

, between St Fillans and the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

Pictish Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographic ...

hill fort of Dundurn. It is believed that the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

Saint Fillan Saint Fillan, Filan, Phillan, Fáelán (Old Irish) or Faolán (modern Gaeilge & Gàidhlig) is the name of an eighth century monk from Munster, who having studied at Taghmon Abbey, traveled to Scotland and settled at Strath Fillan. Name The na ...

lived on this hill. Not far from the foot of the hill is the Allt Ghoinean

burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur mainl ...

which is claimed to be the Gonan or Monan of

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

's poem ''

The Lady of the Lake The Lady of the Lake (french: Dame du Lac, Demoiselle du Lac, cy, Arglwyddes y Llyn, kw, Arloedhes an Lynn, br, Itron al Lenn, it, Dama del Lago) is a name or a title used by several either fairy or fairy-like but human enchantresses in the ...

'': :''The stag at eve had drunk his fill, where danced the moon on Monan's rill''. There is a large

hydro-electric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

in St Fillans, fed from a dam at Loch Lednock high above the village. The power station, which forms part of the

Breadalbane Hydro-Electric Scheme The Breadalbane Hydro-Electric Scheme is a hydroelectric scheme in the Breadalbane area of Perthshire, Scotland. It comprises seven power stations which generate 120MW of power from the dams around Loch Lyon, Loch Earn and Loch Tay. History ...

, is not visible within St Fillans as it is underground and was hewn from solid rock. The

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

course at St Fillans was created in 1903 by

Willie Auchterlonie William "Willie" Auchterlonie (7 August 1872 – 27 February 1963) was a Scottish professional golfer. He was a native of St Andrews. He won the 1893 Open Championship at the age of and he remains the second youngest Open Champion after Tom ...

. The section of the River Earn from St Fillans down to Comrie, along with much of the surrounding countryside, is designated as a national scenic area (NSA). It is one of 40 such areas in Scotland, which are defined to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure its protection by restricting certain forms of development. The River Earn (Comrie to St Fillans) NSA covers in total. The village became the scene of controversy in November 2005 when a housing development was halted to avoid killing the

fairies A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, of ...

who allegedly lived under a rock on the proposed site. After some negotiation, the new housing estate was redesigned so that the rock in question was preserved, in a small park in the centre of the estate. On the A85 just to the east of St Fillans lies the St Fillans Dragon and the St Fillans Toad.

References

External links

Parish of Comrie
in the Second Statistical Account of 1845 {{authority control Saint Fillans National scenic areas of Scotland