Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 34 on 30/08/2007.

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Stirling, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs

Stirling, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs are within easy reach of Glasgow but offer solitude and scenery. Dominic Roskrow reports

The heart of Scotland
The area around Loch Lomond and the Trossachs is a vast historical playground, the buffer between the Highlands and Lowlands, a vast expanse of variety just a few miles from Scotland’s main population centres. And between the boundaries to the north and south, and across to the east and west, they offer the visitor a taste of everything Scotland has to offer – from stunning scenery, dramatic lochs, glens and bens, to culture, and wildlife, to a big splash of dramatic history, much of it glorious, some of it gory, and some cloaked in myth and legend.

This is Macgregor country, and stories about the clan are many, most notably those of Rob Roy, the legend who was either heroic outlaw or common cattle thief depending who is telling the story.

The region known as Loch Lomond and The Trossachs stretches from Loch Lomond Shores, the centre of activity for Loch Lomond some 18 miles from Glasgow off the A82 near Stirling, and stretches from the Lowland slopes in the south to the Highland boundaries in the North, from Argyll Forest Park in the west and over to Tyndrum, Crianlarich and Killin to the east. In all it covers about 720 square miles.

The Trossachs are often known as Scotland in miniature and they have influenced a whole range of people from Sir Walter Scott, who wrote Lady of the Lake after spending time at Loch Katrine nearby, and Queen Victoria, who journeyed here many times.

Journey further and you arrive in Stirling, the very heart of Scottis.....

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By Dominic Roskrow

Section : Regional Focus

Page number : 31