Killin to Killin Junction
Killin Junction.
The Killin branch line opened from Killin Junction to Killin Pier in 1886. Day trips from Glasgow and Edinburgh using the railway and the steamers on Loch Tay to create a “round trip”, brought hundreds of people to Killin and the heart of Breadalbane.
Lix Toll.
Often mistaken for the 59th Toll on a Roman road. The house was originally a tollhouse but Lix actually means the hard slope.
Deserted settlement at Lix.
The first reference to Lix appears in the 16th century when it was a small territorial unit that belonged to the Carthusian monks in Perth. West, Middle and East Lix are mentioned frequently after 1745 in the papers of Commissioners for the Forfeited Estates. The settlement declined somewhere between 1820 –1830.
Kinnell Stone Circle.
Circle of standing stones in a field belonging to Kinnell House(private) the former home of the McNab clan chiefs. (Please ask before visiting the stone circle)
Falls of Dochart Bridge.
The Falls of Dochart are probably the most photographed waterfalls in Scotland. The fine stone bridge that crosses the Falls and takes you into the village of Killin is believed to have been built in 1760 to replace a previous one of wooden construction.
Innis Bhuidhe.
Or Yellow Island, is the clan burial ground of the McNabs, and is accessed from the Falls of Dochart Bridge. Within a walled enclosure are the graves of the clan chiefs with ordinary members of the clan buried outside. In the 14th century the MacNabs owned lands at the west end of Loch Tay, round their Castle of Ellanryne, and rented land further west from the Laird of Menzies. The Menzies were a powerful and peaceful clan so the Clan MacNab lived a fairly quiet and settled existence beside them. There were skirmishes with the Clan MacNeish on Loch Earn and then began the gradual encroachment of the Campbells of Glen Orchy, culminating in the occupation of Finlarig Castle in the 16th century. There was much feuding and harrying between the Campbells and the MacNabs, as well as between the other clans associated with the area - MacDonald, Stewart, McLaren, McGregor, McNeish. The MacNabs of the 18th and 19th centuries provide us with colourful characters such as Francis, born in 1734, and we have all heard of Rob Roy McGregor, another lively character from the 1700’s.
St. Fillan’s Mill.
The Breadalbane Folklore Centre is housed in what is known as St. Fillan’s Mill. He is believed to have founded a meal mill on this spot in the 7th century and a later building became a woollen and tweed mill. Today it houses an exhibition about the history and folklore of the area and you can see the legendary healing stones of St. Fillan.
Fingal’s Stone.
Fingal’s Stone is accessed via the footpath in Breadalbane Park. Legend has it that this stone marks the grave of Fingal, one of the legendary heroes of Celtic mythology.
Killin and Ardeonaig Parish Church
was built in 1744, to replace the pre-reformation church, which stood in the old burial ground behind the Killin Hotel, it has an octagonal dome and houses a seven sided baptismal font from the 9th century. The church bell still in use is dated 1632.Outside the church is a memorial to the Rev. James Stuart, Minister in Killin from 1737 to1789. He translated the New Testament into Scottish Gaelic, published in 1767, thus giving the people of the Highlands the scriptures in their own language for the first time.
Finlarig Castle
today an unsafe ruin) was once a home of the Campbell family, who at one time “owned” all the land from the coast of Argyll to Kenmore, and later became the Earls of Breadalbane. Sir Duncan Campbell, or Black Duncan as he was known, was a pioneer of afforestation in the late 16th century and made laws requiring all tenants and cottars to plant a set number of young trees every year.