Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 14 on 2/5/2004.

This article is 52 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Operating under their own steam

Relax a while, forget the rush and hurry of train and plane, and join Sara Wilson on a steam boat

Transport has come on leaps and bounds over the last 100 years. We’ve seen the decline of trams and the ascent of skateboards, and it now takes just 30 minutes to get from Aberdeen to Glasgow if we hop on a plane and take to the skies.

Amidst this wheel-orientated revolution borne to try and save us time, Scotland’s steamships have continued to ply their trade against the odds.

Having carried more than five million passengers, the Clyde-based Waverley has established herself as one of the west coast’s most popular tourist attractions.

Similarly, the SS Walter Scott on Loch Katrine is, more than 100 years later, still mesmerising visitors with the astonishing beauty of the landscape which so inspired the writer she was named after.

This spring sees the launch of the first steamship on Loch Tay in Perthshire since World War Two.

Designed with Victorian-inspired flourishes and coupled with the very best of modern-day engineering, the Spirit of the Tay is further proof that steamship travel is alive and well in Scotland today.

There’s something leisurely about travelling aboard a boat – being confined to a deck for a couple of hours, all you can do is relax and savour the rolling scenery on either side of you and the cream-crested waves shimmering under you.

Although their engines are powerful, steamship travel has never been about getting anywhere in a hurry and in this day and age the kind of experience which allows us to luxuriate in pleasant surroundings is one we’re .....

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By Sara Wilson

Section : Exploring Scotland

Page number : 58