The Trossachs - Birthplace of Scottish Tourism
Sir Walters Scott's, The Lady of the Lake (1810), created a vogue for the Trossachs and is primarily responsible for the area's enduring popularity with tourists. Due to popular demand, Thomas Cook started his first Scottish tours in 1846.
In 1859, Queen Victoria visited Loch Katrine, catapulting the loch and the Trossachs area into the premier league of desirable destinations. Sightseers flocked to Loch Katrine to visit 'Ellen's Isle'.
In 1859, Queen Victoria visited Loch Katrine, catapulting the loch and the Trossachs area into the premier league of desirable destinations. Sightseers flocked to Loch Katrine to visit 'Ellen's Isle'.
Loch Katrine
Enlarged in 1859 to provide the first reliable piped water supply for the city of Glasgow.
The Trossachs
For those tourists that couldn't afford a grand tour this was the closest they could get to the Swiss lakes
The Dukes Pass
Constructed by the Duke of Montrose in 1885 to join Aberfoyle to the old Trossachs pass. The Pass, was opened to the public in 1931 when the Forestry Commission acquired the land.
Sir Walter Scott's "The Lady of the Lake" 1810
The influential poem was a world wide success- The vivid description of Loch Katrine brought visitors from far and wide.
Excerpt
XIV
...
And now, to issue from the glen,
No pathway meets the wanderer's ken,
Unless he climb with footing nice
A far-projecting precipice.
The broom's tough roots his ladder made,
The hazel saplings lent their aid;
And thus an airy point he won,
Where, gleaming with the setting sun,
One burnished sheet of living gold,
Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled,
In all her length far winding lay,
With promontory, creek, and bay,
And islands that, empurpled bright,
Floated amid the livelier light,
And mountains that like giants stand
To sentinel enchanted land.
High on the south, huge Benvenue
Down to the lake in masses threw
Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled,
The fragments of an earlier world;
A wildering forest feathered o'er
His ruined sides and summit hoar,
While on the north, through middle air,
Ben-an heaved high his forehead bare.
XV.
From the steep promontory gazed
The stranger, raptured and amazed,
And, 'What a scene were here,' he cried,
... Paragraph
The influential poem was a world wide success- The vivid description of Loch Katrine brought visitors from far and wide.
Excerpt
XIV
...
And now, to issue from the glen,
No pathway meets the wanderer's ken,
Unless he climb with footing nice
A far-projecting precipice.
The broom's tough roots his ladder made,
The hazel saplings lent their aid;
And thus an airy point he won,
Where, gleaming with the setting sun,
One burnished sheet of living gold,
Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled,
In all her length far winding lay,
With promontory, creek, and bay,
And islands that, empurpled bright,
Floated amid the livelier light,
And mountains that like giants stand
To sentinel enchanted land.
High on the south, huge Benvenue
Down to the lake in masses threw
Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled,
The fragments of an earlier world;
A wildering forest feathered o'er
His ruined sides and summit hoar,
While on the north, through middle air,
Ben-an heaved high his forehead bare.
XV.
From the steep promontory gazed
The stranger, raptured and amazed,
And, 'What a scene were here,' he cried,
... Paragraph
Rob Roy MacGregor: hero or villain?
Liam Neeson as Rob Roy
Clan Leader, Cattle Drover, cattle thief and blackmailer
Sail on the historic steamship,
'Sir Walter Scott', nobly cruising these waters for over a century