Scenic Place in Stirling

Loch Lomond is the largest freshwater lake in Britain by surface area, a 71-square-kilometre expanse of water that lies at the heart of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park and provides the most accessible example of Highland scenery for the large population of central Scotland and northern England within comfortable reach of its shores. The loch is one of the most visited natural sites in Scotland and the subject of one of the most famous Scottish songs, whose chorus has made the phrase bonnie banks of Loch Lomond known worldwide. The loch has a geographical character that reflects its position on the Highland Boundary Fault, the geological divide between the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands. The southern end of the loch, broad and island-scattered, lies in the lowland zone and has a gentle, pastoral character with wooded islands and accessible shores. The northern end narrows dramatically as the Highland boundary is crossed and the mountains press in from both sides, creating a quite different character of fjord-like narrowness with steep mountain slopes rising directly from the water's edge. The island of Inchcailloch in the southern loch is a national nature reserve with excellent walking and the remains of a medieval church and burial ground, and the wooded islands scattered across the broader southern section provide boat trips and kayaking destinations in summer. The West Highland Way long-distance walking route follows the eastern shore of the loch for approximately twenty kilometres between Drymen and Inverarnan, providing some of the finest lochside walking available in Scotland. Ben Lomond, rising from the eastern shore to 974 metres as the most southerly Munro in Scotland, provides one of the most popular mountain walks in the country, its relatively accessible ascent from Rowardennan carrying thousands of walkers annually.

Loch Katrine in the Trossachs National Park northwest of Stirling is the most celebrated loch in the Scottish Highlands south of the Highland Boundary Fault, a Highland loch of exceptional scenery famous as the setting of Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake and as the water supply reservoir for Glasgow in a combination of literary heritage and Victorian engineering that has made it one of the most visited natural attractions in the Trossachs. The SS Sir Walter Scott, a restored Victorian steamship that has operated on the loch since 1900, provides one of the finest heritage vessel experiences in Scotland. Loch Katrine provides the water supply for Glasgow through a gravity-fed aqueduct of nearly 50 kilometres constructed between 1856 and 1859 in one of the most important public health engineering achievements of Victorian Scotland, the clean water from the loch replacing the contaminated well water that had contributed to the cholera epidemics that killed thousands of Glasgow residents in the 1830s and 1840s. The quality of the water has been maintained in the loch catchment by preventing agricultural and industrial development since 1856, keeping Loch Katrine exceptionally clean. The cycling on the traffic-free road along the north shore of the loch provides one of the finest accessible cycling routes in the Trossachs, and the combination of the steamer trip and the cycling creates an excellent full day in the loch and forest landscape of the national park.

Loch Tay is one of the largest freshwater lochs in Scotland, stretching approximately 23 kilometres through the magnificent scenery of Highland Perthshire between the towns of Killin at its western end and Kenmore to the east. At almost 150 metres deep in places, the loch holds more water than any other body of fresh water in Scotland south of Loch Ness, and its dark, cold depths support significant populations of brown trout, perch and pike, making it an important game fishing destination. The landscape surrounding Loch Tay is characterised by the rounded green hills of Highland Perthshire, rising steeply on both sides of the water and giving way to the broader mountain country of the Breadalbane. Ben Lawers, at 1,214 metres the highest mountain in the southern Highlands, dominates the northern shore and is famous among botanists for its exceptional arctic-alpine plant communities. The nutrient-rich mica-schist geology of the mountain supports over 160 species of flowering plants including many rare species that exist here at the southern edge of their natural range. The National Trust for Scotland manages much of the Ben Lawers massif and maintains an interpretive centre with information about the mountain's ecology. Human history along Loch Tay stretches back thousands of years. The loch's shores preserve some of the best-known crannog sites in Scotland, particularly the reconstructed Iron Age crannog at the Scottish Crannog Centre near Kenmore. Crannogs were artificial island dwellings built in the shallow margins of the loch on wooden piles, and dozens of these structures lie beneath the water of Loch Tay, some dating back 5,000 years. The Crannog Centre offers fascinating hands-on demonstrations of Iron Age crafts and technologies. The village of Kenmore at the eastern end is one of Scotland's prettiest planned villages, its whitewashed cottages arranged around the green with a charming arched bridge across the Tay. Killin at the western end sits below the dramatic Falls of Dochart, where the river tumbles through a series of rocky rapids in the centre of the village, creating one of the most photographed scenes in Highland Perthshire. Both villages serve as excellent bases for exploring the loch and surrounding countryside.

Loch Katrine is one of Scotland's most beautiful and romantically celebrated freshwater lochs, lying at the heart of the Trossachs region in what is now Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. The loch stretches for around twelve kilometres through a landscape of wooded hillsides, heather moorland and dramatic mountain views that made it famous long before the national park designation formalised its protection. The loch's romantic reputation was established above all by Sir Walter Scott, who set his narrative poem The Lady of the Lake here in 1810, a work that proved so popular it effectively launched Scottish Highlands tourism as a recognisable industry. Visitors began arriving in substantial numbers to see the scenery that had inspired the poem, and the loch's reputation as a place of exceptional natural beauty has been sustained ever since. The Royal Family visited in 1869 in a trip that further cemented Loch Katrine's status as a destination of distinction. The Trossachs landscape that surrounds Loch Katrine has been called Scotland in miniature, combining forested glens, mountain ridges, lochside paths and ancient oakwood in a landscape that packs the essential character of the Highlands into an area accessible from the central belt. The SS Sir Walter Scott, a Victorian steam-powered passenger vessel still operating on the loch, provides one of Scotland's most charming and historic boat excursions, departing from Trossachs Pier at the eastern end of the loch for regular cruises throughout the visitor season. Cyclists and walkers have exclusive access to the lochside road, which runs along the northern shore of the loch for eleven kilometres through some of the most peaceful and beautiful countryside in the Trossachs. The Katrine Wheel cycle route allows a full circuit of the loch, combining the road with forest tracks, and the walking possibilities in the surrounding hills range from gentle lochside strolls to more demanding ridge walks. Loch Katrine also plays a practical role in the life of the region: since 1859 it has served as the primary water supply for the city of Glasgow, an engineering achievement that dramatically improved public health in what was then one of the world's most densely populated and disease-ridden cities. The Victorian aqueduct system that carried the water southward was a feat of civil engineering that transformed Glasgow's mortality statistics.