Towns in the area
Five miles east of Crieff lies the beautiful village of Fowlis Wester. It’s name was depicted in the Charters of Inchaffray in 1208 as Foglais, old Gaelic for ‘burn’.
Though hailed as a sleepy, tranquil and somewhat timeless village, it boasts a turbulent history that is the envy of few. It was once an important trading centre, being the gateway from the western and northern shores to the cities of Perth and Dundee. The Highlandmen drove their cattle through this village to the annual Crieff Tryst, returning north with coal and other products. Many others stayed behind at the village inn and conducted their own cattle tryst as important as that of Falkirk.
Legend explains that three French brothers settled in Scotland - one at Fowlis Wester, another at Fowlis Easter (near Dundee) and a third at Fowlis in Ross-shire. Fowlis in believed to be the French meaning for feuilles (leaves). This is perhaps why three leaves are carved in the old church archway!
Whatever its origin, this tiny Perthshire village is dominated by the beautifully restored 13th century Church of St Bean’s. St Bean was the great-grandson of Aedh Dubh, King of Leinster in Ireland who became Bishop of Feighcullen, Co. Kildare.
One of seven brothers, St Bean came to Scotland to preach the Gospel as a way of eradicating some of the dark pagan practices. The kirk [church] was a gift of Gilbert, the Celtic Earl of Strathearn, and it served as a parish for 700 years.
There are many argued reasons why the visitor should spent time discovering this uniquely restored building. For example, the low window on the right-hand side of the chancel was once a leaper’s squint, enabling the afflicted to watch mass without contaminating any other worshipper. During the course of a hugely united restoration effort in 1927 an 8thC Pictish stone was discovered in the north transept embedded in the foundation of the wall near to the Vestry.
- Photograph by James Rattray.
From Pictish workman to USA spaceman may seem a far leap but it is one that the church encompasses: displayed is a portion of the McBean tartan, taken to the moon by American astronaut Alan McBean; another sample is also held by the Tartans’ Museum in Comrie, 12 miles away.
The tree-covered brae [hill] on the approach to Fowlis Wester is one of the earliest traces of Neolithic man in Perthshire; a burial mound dating from 3000 BC. It is likely to contain the remains of many generations of our earliest inhabitants.
On the village square there is a badly eroded stone dating back to the 8th/9th century. Nonetheless, it still displays carvings of men on horseback and on foot, some hounds, a large bird and an animal which might represent a wolf.
The 1961 Census records a population of just 685, about half of what it was a hundred years earlier. The closing decades of the 19th century saw the collapse of hand-loom weaving and brought with it a rapid decline in the population of the parish.
