Hi Ruskie,
Thanks for your reply, I had looked up the Webster definition where it contained a church, attributed to Sir Walter Scott so I ran with that meaning but I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time.
My Shorter Oxford...' a Scottish villiage."
Online Dictionary,
Clach´an
n. 1. A small village containing a church.
Clachan
(definition) by Webster 1913
Clach"an (?), n. [Scot., fr.Gael.]
A small village containing a church.
[Scot.]
Sir W. Scott
Bit late with this, but Chambers Dictionary (published in Scotland, unlike Webster's or the Shorter Oxford) just says, "a small village". Almost exactly the same as a hamlet.
The wikipedia example specifically quotes the Irish usage - in Scotland it would not be pronounced 'clach-awn' but 'clach-an'. It may be that in Ireland a clachan does have a church, but that is certainly not the meaning I would take from it as far as Scotland is concerned. (Wikipedia also errs in saying that Scots Gaelic 'clachan' means 'a stone'. It means 'stones' in the plural, and it does not have an accent. A single stone is 'clach'.)
