St Fillan's Chapel And Burial-Ground

St Fillan’s Chapel and burial ground is an ancient ruin located southeast of St Fillans village, believed to date back to the 16th century, although it occupies the site of an earlier chapel founded by St Fillan. The site, adjacent to St Fillan’s Hill (also known as Dundurn), has historical religious significance for both Christians and Picts. The chapel was abandoned during the Reformation and subsequently became the burial ground for the Stewarts of Ardvorlich, a prominent local family.

The chapel is a small, rectangular rubble enclosure without a roof since 1890. The gabled ends are crowstepped and retain skewputts projecting from the south elevation, inscribed with the letters 'S' and 'SA'. The wallheads have been reconstructed with flat concrete. Two openings are present on the south elevation: a timber-lintelled doorway and a square window to its right, the window possibly originally having some form of barring. The building is constructed of a mix of larger, squared rubble stones and thinner stones laid horizontally, used for the building’s margins and corners. A plaque within the interior south wall confirms the chapel’s dedication to St Fillan. Inside, a stone ledge projects from the wall at mid-height on the gables, and a horizontal channel on the west gable indicates the former presence of a ceiling before 1890.

The associated burial ground is roughly heart-shaped and enclosed by a dry stone dyke approximately one metre high, which has been repaired with mortar in some sections. A cast iron gateway, likely dating from the mid-19th century, is located at the south edge of the dyke.

Notable gravestones include 17th-century memorials to Major J Stewart (dated 1662), Robert Stewart (1680) and J Stewart (1698). A 1729 memorial stone features the Tree of Life on one side and a depiction of Adam and Eve on the other. The building is constructed from random rubble with squared stones used in the crowstepped gables, and carved skewputts.