Hill of Fearn

Hill of Fearn
Scottish Gaelic: Baile an Droma
Hill of Fearn
 Hill of Fearn shown within the Highland council area
OS grid referenceNH832778
Council areaHighland
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town Tain
Postcode district IV20 1
Police Scottish
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
EU Parliament Scotland
List of places
UK
Scotland

Coordinates: 57°46′30″N 3°57′53″W / 57.7749°N 3.9647°W / 57.7749; -3.9647

Hill of Fearn (Scottish Gaelic: Baile an Droma) is a small village near Tain in Easter Ross, in the Scottish council area of Highland.

Geography

The village is on the B9165 road, between the A9 trunk road and the smaller hamlet of Fearn to the southeast. The parish church of Fearn Abbey stands a few minutes walk to the south-east of the village. Coincidentally, one of its Abbots, Abbot Finlay McFaed (d.1485) almost shares his unusual surname with the present renovator and owner of Balnagown Castle (Seat of the Clan Ross, 10 minutes drive to the southwest) - Mohamed Al Fayed.

The former RNAS Fearn (HMS Owl) is to the south of the village.

Village

Hill of Fearn has a garage, post office and village shop and butcher's, primary school, bus stop,and a hotel/pub called Fearn Hotel. The Fearn railway station on the Far North Line is a mile from the village.

The "N" on the sign into the village is often removed, giving the village the more sinister title of "Hill of Fear" - despite the best efforts of Highland Council to replace the N, or the entire sign itself, on a number of occasions.

Care should be taken to distinguish between the village of Hill of Fearn and the parish of Fearn; the latter also contains the villages of Hilton and Balintore (2 miles distant from Hill of Fearn) and the hamlet of Fearn (1/4 mile distant from Hill of Fearn). The name Fearn, according to Watson's "Place Names of Ross & Cromarty", derives from the Scottish Gaelic Feàrna (an alder tree).

Famous residents

Hill of Fearn was the birthplace (28 August 1884) of the New Zealand Prime Minister Peter Fraser (1 April 1940 to 13 December 1949). Tarbat Discovery Centre in Portmahomack (seven miles distant) has an excellent archive relating to Peter Fraser (not on display, but may be consulted on request). Hill of Fearn was also the birthplace (14 May 1948) of churchman John MacLeod (minister) The author Eric Linklater (1899–1974), when he was owner of nearby Pitcalzean House, Nigg in the 1940s and 1950s bought his clothes from the village tailor, Norman Smart.

See also

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 17, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.