Deanston () is a village in the Stirling council area, Scotland, on the south bank of the River Teith east of Doune, in south-west Perthshire. It is a part of the parish of Kilmadock. Etymology The name comes from Walter Drummond, Dean of Dunblane in 1500, originally called Deans Town. After his appointment as Dean of Dunblane, he acquired the lands now known as Deanston from the Haldanes of Gleneagles. Deanston mill Deanston Cotton Mill was built by the Buchanan brothers of Carston, Killearn near Glasgow, in 1785, and utilised the River Teith to power the mill. In 1808 James Finlay & Co bought and developed the mill, including the construction of a Lade. James Smith, manager of the mill from 1807, was a successful entrepreneur and inventor. He built unusually designed accommodation over four levels for his workforce, called the divisions, which was new in its day. At its peak, the mill had over 1000 workers and had the largest waterwheel in Europe, Hercules, with a diameter of . The cotton mill closed in 1965. On the site, the Deanston Distillery opened in 1966 and is owned by Burn Stewart Distillers Limited (part of Distell Group Limited), where it produces several megawatts for the National Grid (2007). Description and significance Deanston is a Stirling Council Conservation Area, comprising not only the village but the mill / distillery buildings, Deanston House and grounds and the whole of the mill lade. All the buildings are Listed, varying from Grade A to C under the Scottish Listing system. The village domestic housing (A – see plan) comprises essentially one long straight street, consisting of five blocks of terrace houses or ‘Divisions’ as they were known. This unusual arrangement probably reflects the nature of the site, a narrow flat terrace facing the River Teith with the land rising steeply behind. Nos 1 to 17 on the north side of the road were built circa 1811 for the mill overseers. On the south side of the road, the four blocks were built for the mill workers and their families, blocks 12 to 22 c. 1811 and the remaining blocks c.1820, thus all these buildings date to the Georgian era. The houses were on three floors, being reached in the case of the workers’ cottages by a common entrance passage. Despite their early date, the houses are only listed as [Scottish] Category C. The Mill