Balquhidder (/bælˈhwɪdər/ ⓘ; Scottish Gaelic: Both Chuidir [ˌpɔˈxutʲɪɾʲ] or Both Phuidir [ˌpɔˈfutʲɪɾʲ])[2][3] is a small village in Perthshire located 10 miles (16 km) north-west of Callander.
It is administered by the Stirling council area of Scotland and is overlooked by the dramatic mountain terrain of the 'Braes of Balquhidder', at the head of Loch Voil.
St Angus came to Balquhidder Glen in the 8th or 9th century and recognised what the Celts called a "thin place", where the boundary between Earth and Heaven was close.
He knelt and blessed the glen at the spot where the house "Beannach Aonghais" (Gaelic 'blessing of Angus') now stands and built a stone oratory at Kirkton, where he spent the rest of his life.
Balquhidder lies close to the Highland boundary and thus came earlier into the nominal ownership of lords possessing charters issued by the royal court in Edinburgh.
Thus, it appears probable that both the MacGregors and MacLaren/MacLaurin lineage from Appin were introduced to Balquhidder and other locations in Perthshire, around Loch Tay, as the result of Campbell expansion.
Irish records provide a relationship between the chiefs of Clan Lahbran (MacLaren) and Kenneth MacAlpin who successfully united the Northern Picts into Scotland in 843–850.
Dr Archibald "Archie" Cameron of Locheil had returned to Scotland in the early 1750s hoping to raise support for a possible last-ditch coup against George II.
[citation needed] The local kirkyard is the final resting place of Rob Roy;[7] his grave is marked with the appropriately defiant motto 'MacGregor Despite Them'.
[citation needed] There are some foundations of the east end of the small medieval parish church of Balquhidder around the grave of Rob Roy and his family (which seem deliberately to have been buried at the site of its altar).