St Fillans is a village in the central highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

 of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, in the district of Perth and Kinross

Perth and Kinross

Perth and Kinross is one of 32 council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee City, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Argyll and Bute and Highland council areas. Perth is the administrative centre...

.

It lies at the eastern end of Loch Earn

Loch Earn

Loch Earn is a freshwater loch in the central highlands of Scotland, in the districts of Perth and Kinross and Stirling...

, 6 km west of Comrie

Comrie

Comrie is an affluent village and parish in the southern highlands of Scotland, towards the western end of the Strathearn district of Perth and Kinross, seven miles west of Crieff. The village has won the Royal Horticultural Society "Large Village Britain in Bloom Winner" in 2007 and 2010...

 on the A85 road

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 via Perth Bridge. Its name between the latter two locations is...

. St Fillans was a small clachan

Clachan

A clachan is a type of small traditional settlement common in Ireland and Scotland until the middle of the 20th century. It is usually defined as a small village lacking a church, post office, or other formal building. Their origin is unknown, but it is likely that they are of a very ancient...

 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

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 church, St Fillan's Chapel, whose kirkyard

Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...

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

River Earn

The River Earn in Scotland leaves Loch Earn at St Fillans and runs east through Strathearn, then east and south, joining the River Tay near Abernethy. The Earn is about long. It passes by Comrie, Crieff and Bridge of Earn....

, between St Fillans and the Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 Pictish

Picts

The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...

 hill fort of Dundurn. It is believed that the Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 Saint Fillan

Fillan

Saint Fillan, Filan, Phillan, Fáelán or Faolan is the name of two Scottish saints, of Irish origin. The career of a historic individual lies behind at least one of these saints Saint Fillan, Filan, Phillan, Fáelán (Old Irish) or Faolan (modern Gaelic) is the name of (probably) two Scottish...

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

Burn (stream)

In Scotland, North East England and some parts of Ireland and New Zealand, burn is a name for watercourses from large streams to small rivers. The term is also used in lands settled by the Scots and Northern English in other countries, notably in Otago, New Zealand, where much of the naming was...

 which is claimed to be the Gonan or Monan of Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

's poem The Lady of the Lake

The Lady of the Lake (poem)

The Lady of the Lake is a narrative poem by Sir Walter Scott, first published in 1810. Set in the Trossachs region of Scotland, it is composed of six cantos, each of which concerns the action of a single day...

:

The stag at eve had drunk his fill, where danced the moon on Monan's rill.

There is a large hydro-electric

Hydroelectricity

Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...

 power station

Power station

A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....

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

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 course at St Fillans was created in 1903 by Willie Auchterlonie

William Auchterlonie

William "Willie" Auchterlonie was a Scottish golfer. He was a native of the "Home of Golf" St. Andrews. He won the 1893 Open Championship, at the age of 21 years and 24 days and he remains the second youngest Open Champion after Tom Morris, Jnr, but it was to prove to be his only Open. His...

.

The village became the scene of controversy in November 2005 when a housing development was halted to avoid killing the fairies which 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 you'll find the St Fillans Dragon and St Fillans Toad.

External links

• Parish of Comrie in the Second Statistical Account of 1845