Gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

FILL A N S (ST.)
435
chapel, with a missionary chaplain supported
by the Society for Propagating Christian
Knowledge, and who has a manse and glebe
from the Marquis.
FILLANS (St.), a village of modern date
in the western part of the parish of Comrie,
Perthshire, situated at the foot of Loch Earn,
where the river Earn issues from the lake-
On the top of a conical hill, named Dun-Fillan,
a little way east from the village, is shown a
rock, called St. Fillan's Chair, from which he
used to bestow his blessings on the country ;
and near it are two small cavities in the rock,
said to have been worn by his knees in his
almost incessant praying. St. Fillans was for-
merly a wretched hamlet, denominated Port-
more, but it is now one of the sweetest spots
in Scotland. The village has been reared and
encouraged by the attention of Lord and Lady
Willoughby d'Eresby (lately Gwydir), and
here the traveller is delighted to find the people
altogether losing their native taste for dung-
hills, and thatch, and peat-reek, and fast adopt-
ing a better one for slate, cleanliness, and ho-
neysuckle. The houses have all gardens at-
tached to them, and are even in many cases
surrounded more immediately by sweet shrubs
and flowers. There are also a few villas built,
for families who may be inclined to settle in
this delicious spot. It is annually, in autumn,
rendered a scene of high festival, by a meeting
of the St. Fillans Society, which was instituted
in 1819, for the purpose of giving prizes to
successful competitors in certain national sports,
and as a benefit society for imparting aid to in-
digent and distressed members, widows, and
orphans. Their festivities are usually attend-
ed by hundreds of persons of condition, male
and female, from all parts of the Highlands.
FINAN, or FINNIN, a small river in the
western part of Inverness-shire, a tributary of
Loch Shiel, which gives the name of Glenfinan
to the vale through which it passes.
FINDHORN, a river which rises chiefly
from the north side of the range of hills of
Badenoch, Inverness- shire, and flows in a north-
easterly course, with little variation, through
Inverness- shire, and part of Nairn and Moray-
shires. It finally pours its waters into a loch
or arm of the sea, called the Harbour of Find-
horn, on the south shore of the Moray Frith,
at a distance of fifty miles from its source.
The Findhom is a very rapid dangerous stream,
of considerable magnitude, but unfit for navi-
gation farther than the flow of tide. It pur-
sues its course mostly through a wild moun-
tainous region, and is crossed by only three
bridges, namely, one at Forres, another at Bui-
sie, and a third carrying over the military road
from Aviemore to Inverness. This river fi-
gured greatly in the memorable inundations of
1829. It abounds in fine salmon and trout.
FINDHORN, a small sea-port town in
Morayshire, parish of Kinloss, lying at the
point of land which is rendered peninsular by
the Bay of Brough-Head on the east, and the
harbour of Findhorn on the west. It possesses
a share of coasting trade in the exportation of
salmon, corn, &c- and the importation of coals
and different kinds of goods.
FINDOCHTIE, a small fishing village,
west of Cullen, Banffshire.
FINDON, or FINNAN, a fishing village
on the coast of Kincardineshire, about six miles
south of Aberdeen, celebrated for its prepara-
tion of smoked haddocks. Those finely fla-
voured fish are in great request at Aberdeen
and other places in this quarter. So delicate
is the fish, that they can rarely be procured in
a fresh undepreciated condition at the distance
of Edinburgh.
FINGLAN BURN, a tributary of the
Black Esk, JDumfries-shire.
FINGLEN BURN, a tributary of the
Glassert, Stirlingshire.
FINLAGAN, one of the small lakes in
the island of Islay, which discharges itself by
a rivulet, falling into the sea at Laggan. It
has a small islet, on which are the ruins of
a castle, said to have been a place of residence
of the ancient Lords of the Isles, with the
traces of a pier and chapel. Here, says Mar-
tin, was a large stone, seven feet square, to
receive the feet of Macdonald, when he was
crowned King of the Isles ; the elevated chiet
standing on it, while the sword and the white
rod of power were placed in his hands.
FINNIS BAY, a small inlet of the sea,
forming a safe harbour, on the east coast of
Harris, one of the Hebrides.
FINTRAY, a parish in Aberdeenshire, of
five miles in length by from three to four in
breadth, on the lower part of the river Don,
on its left bank, opposite Dyce and Kintore.
The surface is generally hilly, and mostly pas-
toral, except on the banks of the Don, where
the land is fertile, and susceptible of produc-
tive cultivation. The grounds are becoming