Hill of Fearn ( gd, Baile an Droma) is a small

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

near

Tain Tain ( Gaelic: ''Baile Dhubhthaich'') is a royal burgh and parish in the County of Ross, in the Highlands of Scotland. Etymology The name derives from the nearby River Tain, the name of which comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'flow'. The ...

Easter Ross Easter Ross ( gd, Ros an Ear) is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland. The name is used in the constituency name Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is the name of both a British House of Commons constituenc ...

, in the Scottish council area of

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

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 Fearn Abbey – known as "The Lamp of the North" – has its origins in one of Scotland's oldest pre-Reformation church buildings. Part of the Church of Scotland and located to the southeast of Tain, Ross-shire, it continues as an acti ...

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 Balnagown Castle is beside the village of Kildary in Easter Ross, part of the Highland area of Scotland. There has been a castle on the site since the 14th century, although the present building was remodelled in the 18th and 19th centuries. It i ...

(Seat of the

Clan Ross Clan Ross ( gd, Clann Anndrais ) is a Highland Scottish clan. The original chiefs of the clan were the original Earl of Ross, Earls of Ross. History Origins The first recorded chief of the Clan Ross was Fearchar, Earl of Ross, "Fearcher Mac ...

, 10 minutes drive to the southwest) -

Mohamed Al Fayed Mohamed Al-Fayed (; arz, محمد الفايد ; born 27 January 1929) is an Egyptian-born businessman whose residence and chief business interests have been in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s. His business interests include ownership of ...

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

Village

Hill of Fearn has a post office which doubles as the village shop and butchers, a primary school and a bus stop. Fearn railway station, located on the

Far North Line The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line is entirely single-trac ...

, is around 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 The Highland Council (' ), the political body covering the Highland local authority created in 1995, comprises 21 wards, each electing three or four councillors by the single transferable vote system, which creates a form of proportional represe ...

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, distant from Hill of Fearn, as well as the hamlet of Fearn, away 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 Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few s ...

Famous residents

Hill of Fearn was the birthplace (28 August 1884) of the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Prime Minister

Peter Fraser Peter Fraser (; 28 August 1884 – 12 December 1950) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 24th prime minister of New Zealand from 27 March 1940 until 13 December 1949. Considered a major figure in the history of the New Zealand Lab ...

(1 April 1940 to 13 December 1949). Tarbat Discovery Centre, located away in Portmahomack, has an 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. The author

Eric Linklater Eric Robert Russell Linklater CBE (8 March 1899 – 7 November 1974) was a Welsh-born Scottish poet, fiction writer, military historian, and travel writer. For ''The Wind on the Moon'', a children's fantasy novel, he won the 1944 Carnegie Meda ...

(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.

Geography

Village

Famous residents

See also

References

External links