Minister, The Rev. John Lincoln,
The Manse, Killin, FK21 8TN
Weekly Sunday Service is at 12 noon
This little grey Kirk is set on a hillside facing south. In the spring the churchyard is bright with daffodils and the larches on the hill behind are just breaking into fresh green. Down by the side of the church, where the Kirkton Burn comes tumbling down from the hills to join the River Balvaig, the banks are carpetted with snowdrops earlier in the year. A few hundred yards up the burn there is an attractive waterfall which is well worth visiting. It is reached by the path behind the church. In bad weather this burn can be a powerful and frightening sight.
Up on the right of this path, above the gravestones, is the knoll called Tom nan Aingeal, the Hill of Fire. In early days, and perhaps until the nineteenth century, twice a year on 1 May and 1 November (Beltane and Samhain) a fire was lit on Tom nan Aingeal, all other fires in the village were put out and the folk came up here to receive new fire for rekindling their hearths.
The Rev. Eric Findlater, who ministered at Lochearnhead for forty years (Lochearnhead is in the parish of Balquhidder) is buried on the knoll and has a stone here. He was the first minister of the new church at Lochearnhead, built in 1846 by those who left the Established Church after the Disruption.
If you continue your walk up this path you can eventually come out in Glen Dochart. But a much shorter walk will bring you to Creag an Tuirc, the Boar's Rock or, as the local people call it, The Manse Rock due to its position behind the Manse. You can see the rock from the Churchyard, up to the right or north-east of the Church. The rock belongs to Clan MacLaren who have a cairn on top. It was at the foot of Creag an Tuirc that the MacLarens rallied in response to the call of the Fiery Cross.
The splendid views from the rock are well worth the climb and the whole village is laid out below. You can see right across Loch Voil to Stronvar House in the south and to the west up the loch and the adjoining Loch Doine to the head of the Braes at Inverlochlarig. Below, the River Balvaig meanders on its way to Loch Lubnaig.
Ahead is Glen Buckie (to the left in the picture above) once a royal forest in the time of the Stewart kings. They often visited the old Kirk of Balquhidder, sometimes to play cards, a strange occupation in such a place. Queen Victoria was another visitor, but she came for more conventional purposes. Glen Buckie was much used by drovers in the days of the big sheep and cattle trysts at Crieff and Falkirk.
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