Saints in Scottish Place-Names
Funded by a Leverhulme Trust Project Grant
Cill-Fhionn, eccles., Dull
Grid reference
NN 851 383 (accurate position)
Six-figure easting & northing
285100 738300
Latitude
56.52278455698361
Longitude
-3.8678955790208027
Altitude (metres)
280
County
Perthshire
Nearby places
St Coittag's Well, Dull (formerly Kenmore) (0 miles)
Tom Orain, Dull (1.32 miles)
Corry Henzie, Crieff (2.42 miles)
Amulree, ford, Little Dunkeld x Dull (3.19 miles)
Amulree, settlement Dull (3.21 miles)
Object Classification
Ecclesiastical
Is linear feature?
No
Notes
A little to the north of the site OS maps show Allt Cill-fhinn. NMRS records: A small chapel and burial ground existed at Auchnacloich (NN 842 393) in association with St Coittag's Well - a healing well of international repute in earlier times for the treatment of various diseases and which was still resorted to in 1784 (J Gillies 1784) There is no trace and no local knowledge of a chapel and burial ground at Auchnacloich. According to Mr J MacFarlane (Auchnafauld, Amulree, Perth) there is a tradition of a burial ground at NN 851 383, some 1100m SE of Auchnacloich, but still within the lands of that croft. The name St Coittag's Well and the healing tradition are not known locally, but at NN 8394 3951 on the roadside is a stone-lined "wishing-well", possibly St Coittag's (but see NN83NW 4). Visited by OS (NKB) 10 October 1975. ___________ The site at the above NGR is on the north side of a burn called Allt Cill-Fhinn (OS Digimap, and OS 6 inch 1st edn, 1867). This suggests 'the burn of Cill-Fhionn', and cill fhionn is Gaelic for 'white church' (the same name underlying the church- and parish-name Killin). In addition the 1867 OS map shows Balkelin, which looks like Gaelic baile cillinn 'chapel farm'. If local toponymy confirms the presence of a chapel at or near this site, we may suspect that St Coittag's Well, supposedly nearby, may point towards its dedication. Coittag would make sense as a Scots-speaking reduction of an Old Gaelic hypocoristic form *Mo-Chétóc, which would be a reference to Céti, bishop of Iona, whose cult is celebrated in these parts. This would be supported by the fact that the land on which this supposed chapel stands was formerly a detached part of Kenmore parish, otherwise Inchadney, a parish dedicated to Céti.
Relationships with other parishes
Within Dull, parish
Within Kenmore, parish (formerly Inchadney) (formerly)
Relationships with other places
Names
1 head-name linked to this place ?Cill-Fhionn
Head name
Cill-Fhionn
Place
Cill-Fhionn, eccles., Dull
Certainty that this name applies to this place
Possible
The status of this name is
Hypothetical
Is this a current OS form? ?
No