Drummond Arms Hotel, St Fillans

Drummond Arms Hotel, St Fillans

The Drummond Arms Hotel is the most prominent building in St Fillans, dominating its neighbours and providing a focal point for the village, especially when viewed from the village approaches and across Loch Earn. It is an important example of a hotel that evolved from a small inn in the early 19th century through a series of additions and incorporates the original hall of the St Fillans Highland Society, a rare survival. The hotel's development reflects the growth of St Fillans and its significance in the development of tourism in the area, particularly as part of carriage tours to Loch Earn.

The hotel comprises a central 5-bay 3-storey piend-roofed block with a square Italianate belvedere tower and prominent wallhead stacks. A long glazed porch runs along the base. To either side are advanced blocks—2-storey to the left (west) and 2½ storeys to the right, both with canted 4-light bay windows. To the northeast is a long ballroom extension, with a series of outbuildings to the rear.

The village of St Fillans, previously known as Port of Lochearn or Meikleport, was renamed and formalised by Lord and Lady Gwydyr of Drummond in 1817. A small inn was constructed at the same time, appearing in early 19th-century drawings as a 3-bay 2-storey building with a small gabled central verandah.

In 1819, following the foundation of the St Fillans Highland Society, a 2-storey hall with a tall piended roof was constructed at the east end of what would become the hotel. An early photograph of around 1844 shows this hall, built of rubble with rubble relieving arches over the openings, projecting slightly from the central block with a door facing west.

In 1867 the hotel underwent further extension. Three bays of the same height as the main block were added to the west, and a large piend-roofed 3-bay 2-storey block was built to mirror the Highland Society hall, albeit slightly higher.

Between 1870 and 1880 the hotel was substantially remodelled. The central 2-storey portion was demolished and rebuilt in its present form as a regular and symmetrical 5-bay 3-storey block with a central balustraded porch with square pillars, bipartite windows on the central bay, a dominant squat belvedere tower with tapered corner pillars, and heavy shouldered wallhead stacks to the front and sides.

Towards the end of the 19th century, a large polygonal-ended ballroom was built at the northeast corner. At the same time or slightly later, the ground floor windows of the end wings were replaced with wide bay windows. Subsequently, the Highland Society hall was raised to its present 2-storey plus dormer height. Around 1960 a large glazed lean-to porch was added along the front elevation, later replaced with a segmental-arcaded flat-roofed equivalent.

To the rear of the hotel extends a long pitch-roofed 1-1½ storey range running north with irregular fenestration, probably related to the 1860s building phase.

Interior features include 5-panel shouldered-arch doors, a timber chimneypiece, plain plaster cornices, and a timber stair with turned balusters and acorn newel. The ballroom is a large open space with cast iron or steel beams supporting the upper floor and simple decorative plasterwork. Flag floors survive in the kitchen. Upstairs rooms, arranged off wide central corridors, have mostly been modernised.

The building is constructed of squared whin rubble with sandstone dressings. The former Highland Society Hall is built of rough rubble with pinnings, and the west wing has rubble with cherry cocking. The roof is grey slate with stone wallhead and ridge stacks and clay cans. Windows are timber sash and case, with plate glass and 4-pane varieties. Cast iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

A substantial coach house and stables dating from around 1880 stands to the rear as the principal outbuilding. It comprises three long parallel single-storey bays with altered openings, including a segmental arch on the east bay.