St. Fillans

The 'new' name of the village refers to an early Celtic missionary from Ireland called Faolan, known as St Fillan (said to be descended from Nadraech, King of Munster). St. Fillans established his headquarters on the nearby 600ft peak of Dundurn (also known as Dunfillan or St. Fillan's Hill) early in the 6th century, from where he set about converting the local Picts to Christianity. Dunfillan, an isolated craggy hill, was considered a shrine for many centuries; devotees visiting the well at its summit (said to cure barreness) until the 19th century. Not far from the eastern foot of the crag is a stream called Allf Ghoinean which is the Gonan or Monan of Sir Walter Scott's 'Lady of the Lake' . . . The stag at eve had drunk his fill, Where danced the moon on Monan's rill. The walk to Dunfillan is a fine one and skirts the St. Fillans golf course (designed by Willie Auchterlonie in 1903) and passes close by the remains of St. Fillans chapel in the Dundurn Burial Ground, traditional resting place of the Stewarts of Ardvorlich. The A85 runs along the northern edge of loch Earn and about two miles from St. Fillans on the right of the road is Glen Tarken. Three and a half miles further on is Glen Beich (Glen of the Birches) and there, between the road and the disused railway line, are the remains of an old castle said to have belonged to the McLarens. With the high peaks of Ben Vorlich (3,231ft) to the south and Ben More (3,852ft) to the west, Loch Earn is surrounded by wooded hills and mountains which rise steeply from the water's edge. This idyllic setting has been witness to many exciting chapters of Scotland's bloody clan history involving the Stewarts, MacGregors, McDonalds of Glencoe, MacNabs, Drummonds, Neishes and McLarens to name but a few. Just offshore from St. Fillans is a manmade island or crannog, dating back to the time of prehistoric lake-dwellers and thought to have been a royal fort in Pictish times. In the 15th century this island was occupied by the McNeishes, who allowed no other boat than their own on Loch Earn. In the centre of St Fillans and near the loch edge local residents planted two oak trees in 1818 on the site of a memorial to a remarkable goose! This goose was said to have been alive in 1612 and because it failed to give the alarm when the McNeishes were attacked it was adopted as a mascot. Its history was said to have been documented 1658, handed on from one generation to the next until it died in 1818. One of the oak trees succumbed in 1912 but its partner remains as testament to this strange story. © The Perfect Solution Last updated November 1999