Callander

Callander (/ˈkæləndər/; Scottish Gaelic: Calasraid) is a small town in the council area of Stirling, Scotland, situated on the River Teith. The town is located in the historic county of Perthshire and is a popular tourist stop to and from the Highlands.

The town serves as the eastern gateway to the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, the first National Park in Scotland, and is often referred to as the "Gateway to the Highlands".

Dominating the town to the north are the Callander Crags, a visible part of the Highland Boundary Fault, rising to 343 metres (1,125 ft) at the cairn. Ben Ledi (879 metres, 2,884 ft) lies north-west of Callander. Popular local walks include Bracklinn Falls, The Meadows, Callander Crags and the Wood Walks. The Rob Roy Way passes through Callander. The town sits on the Trossachs Bird of Prey Trail. The River Teith is formed from the confluence of two smaller rivers, the Garbh Uisge (River Leny) and Eas Gobhain about 1⁄3 mile (500 m) west of the bridge at Callander.

A 19th-century Gothic church stands in the town square, named after Saint Kessog, an Irish missionary who is said to have preached in the area in the sixth-century. The church closed in 1985 and between 1990 and 2006 the building, after undergoing substantial interior alterations, was home to a visitor centre and audio-visual attraction telling the story of local outlaw, Rob Roy MacGregor. The church building was occupied by The Clanranald Trust for Scotland between 2015 and 2018, but it now lies empty.

Founded in 1892, McLaren High School educates pupils aged 11 to 18 from a wide catchment area extending as far as Killin, Tyndrum and Inversnaid.

In 2018 Callander was named Scotland's First Social Enterprise Place, due to the amount of social enterprise activity within the town. This includes Callander Community Hydro Ltd., a community owned renewable energy project which distributes funds to a variety of local projects.