The part of Scotland which contains Loch Lomond and The Trossacha National Park has long been a magnet for visitors. Many, such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Mendelssohn, Hand Andersen, Queen Victoria (and many of her subjects) were tourists. They were inspired by its extraordinary natural beauty, and by a wish to visit the settings for the best-selling works of Sir Walter Scott. Others came in the course of duty: early saints brought Christianity, redcoats pursued Rob Roy and engineers came to revive Scotland's fortunes with hyrdo-electricity.
In this fascinating book, John Ransom, who has lived in the area for many years, tells the stories of the people who came to it and what they found. He describes how an intricate network of connecting trains, loch steamers and horse-drawn coaches enabled them to move around easily; how Loch Lomond and the fast-flowing River Leven were used as a highway for trade for over a thousand years; how the railway from Dunblane to Crianlarich, where luxurious Pullman cars ran in the 1920s, was closed amidst controversy in the 1960s.
Crammed with historical detail and illustrated with numerous modern and period photographs, this is the essential companion to this spectacular corner of Scotland.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Preface
Map
1. Inversnaid: The Crossroads at the End of the Road
2. Inversnaid: The Wordsworths and What They Found There
3. The Garrison, Rob Roy and the Jacobites
4. Loch Lomond: Islands and Islanders
5. Loch Lomond and the River Leven: A Waterway for Commerce
6. Loch Lomond and the River Leven: A Waterway for Pleasure
7. Loch Lomond: The Steamer Service and its Railway Connections
8. Along Loch Lomond's Eastern Shore
9. Tourists, the Trossachs and Loch Katrine
10. Loch Earn and its Surroundings
11. Glen Ogle and Glen Croe: Military Roads, Highland Roads and Turnpikes
12. Crianlarich: The Crewe of the Western Highlands?
13. Loch Sloy Hydro-Electric: Generating the Regeneration of Scotland
14. The Inverary via Loch Eck
Bibliography
Index
