Comrie

View East along Drummond Street

Comrie lies five miles west of Crieff where Strathearn narrows and meets Glen Lednock and its old drove route from the north, and Glen Artney to the south west. It was the site of an early bridge over the River Earn, and that assured the growth of a settlement here. The strategic importance of the location was first recognised by the Romans, who had a fort on the south bank of the River Earn, opposite the site of today's village.

Comrie Community Centre Drummond Street Dalginross Bridge in Evening Sunshine

Comrie's other main claim to fame is that it lies precisely on the Highland Line, the fault that carves from south west to north east right across Scotland. During the 1830s over 7000 earth tremors were recorded in the area, though few of a size that would have been noticed by residents at the time.

Comrie Post Office

Royal Bank of Scotland

The growth of Comrie in the early 1800s owed much to its attractive location as a place for the wealthy to live and to visit. This in turn brought the railway, and in 1893 the Caledonian Railway completed a branch line from Crieff. This was later continued west to link to the Callander and Oban railway at Lochearnhead.

The link to the west of Comrie closed in 1951, and that from Crieff in 1964. A more recent "transport" development remains: Comries lies on the route of the Coast to Coast Walk from Oban to St Andrews and is a welcome stopping off point for the weary traveller.

The 20th Century saw hydroelectric power developed in a number of the glens around Comrie. In Glen Lednock a dam was built, and to the west, water was piped from Loch Earn to another power station. Meanwhile Comrie continued to be an attractive retirement village, giving it the highest proportion of males aged over 65 in Scotland at the time of the 1991 census.

The village itself is made up of a single long main street with a turn at its west end before it heads out towards Lochearnhead. Nearby is the main junction with the road south across the River Earn bridge, overlooked by the striking "White Church" built in 1805. In 1965 the Church of Scotland handed over the building to serve the village as a community centre. In 2000 the centre underwent a major refurbishment with the support of the Millennium Commission and many other funders.

The village is set back a little from the banks of the river, and is also constrained by hills to the north. Most of the growth has therefore taken place on the south side of the river in Dalginross, on and around the site of the original Roman fort.

The White Church probably ensures that no-one has ever driven through Comrie entirely without registering the village, though it is a settlement it is all too easy to overlook. But its attractive main street and superb riverside location, plus in Dalginross Bridge one of the most brightly painted bridges in the Highlands makes it somewhere well worth exploring before you pass on through.