Don't take high road, take the boat to Loch Lomond

TO THE Victorians it was a great day out into some of Scotland's most spectacular scenery.

The splendours of rail, boat and horse and cart took visitors into the countryside north of Glasgow and on to lochs Lomond and Katrine.

Now the experience is to be recreated with an even more ambitious Three Lochs Trail that will encourage 21st-century daytrippers to leave their cars and head for the water.

The trail is being masterminded by the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.

Passengers will be picked up on the Clyde in Glasgow and transported north by steamship up to Arrochar at the top of Loch Long. They will then be able to walk or cycle the mile and a half to Tarbet on the west shore of Loch Lomond before catching a ferry across to Inversnaid.

The Victorians were driven the four and a half miles along the old drove road from Inversnaid to Stronachlachar on Loch Katrine by horse and cart. Their modern-day equivalents will be expected to walk or cycle to rendezvous with the SS Walter Scott on the shores of Loch Katrine.

After the voyage down the loch, they will pick up a specially-created Trossachs Trundler bus for Callander, eight miles east, or Stirling where they can return to Glasgow by train.

If all goes to plan, the trail will be opened either next year or in 2010 when the national park celebrates the 200th anniversary of Sir Walter Scott's classic poem, The Lady of the Lake, set on Loch Katrine.

Mike Cantlay, convener of the national park, said: "When we seek to promote green travel, much can be learned from our Victorian forebears. So history is coming back to life with a contemporary interpretation of the Three Lochs Trail.

"Every national park has sustainable transport as a key objective and this has been a huge challenge for us at Loch Lomond and Trossachs, as we have limited rail access and our road public transport network does not integrate well."

Negotiations are currently proceeding with partners who will help to put the pieces of the trail – approximately 65 miles from Broomielaw on the Clyde to Callander – together.

The Waverley steamship already runs trips from near the Glasgow Science Centre on the Clyde to towns and villages on the Cowal peninsula and Loch Goil. An investigation of the navigable route up to Arrochar is currently under way. A plan to build a new jetty at Arrochar is being formulated to replace an old ruined pier.

Clyde Marine, which runs ferries in the area, is also keen to develop a new Arrochar route.

On Loch Lomond, the Maid of the Loch, currently berthed at Balloch, is undergoing a refurbishment programme. On Loch Katrine the Sir Walter Scott is also currently undergoing an £800,000 refurbishment and is expected to be back on the water next month.

David Rodger, the chairman of Waverley Excursions, said: "The Waverley organisation is delighted at the prospect of serving new facilities at Arrochar, an area which has been closed to us for so long."

Bruce Marshall, an Argyll & Bute councillor and National Park board member, said: "The construction of a new jetty at Arrochar will reverse the trend of the past half century."