Tourist Era

Victorian Era

In the first half of the 19th century, intrepid visitors to the area found conditions difficult. Thomas Carlyle visited a little inn near Loch Katrine in 1818 and found only 'bad oatcakes and unacceptable whisky' on the menu. In 1838, the judge Lord Cockburn was bemused by the 'altercations,' as tourists bickered over accommodation at another tiny inn. (In the end, they all had to bed down together, numbering around 60, in a space more suitable for a dozen!)

A little over half a century later, towards the end of Victoria’s reign, how different things had become! Not just extended and upgraded old coaching inns, but new hotels had sprung up. For example, one modest hostelry was rebuilt to become the vast and imposing Trossachs Hotel – still a landmark today, though now a time-share business.  Loch Katrine got its first steamer, Gypsy, by 1843 – though it was promptly sabotaged: sunk by the crew (probably) of the eight-oared galley Water Witch, who had hitherto had the monopoly on the loch! A replacement steamer, Rob Roy, was on the loch by 1846. Then the Sir Walter Scott came into service in 1900. It is still cruises Loch Katrine today.

 Meanwhile, a network of steamer services had developed on Loch Lomond. The latter half of the 19th century also saw the railways expanding to meet the demands of tourism. The Trossachs were encircled – though no lines actually penetrated the very centre. Aberfoyle and Callander had become railheads. The North British Railway stated, immodestly, in a travellers guide in 1914 that the beauty of the area was such that it was ‘the most entrancing single day’s journey in the two hemispheres’.

The journey to which it was referring quickly was already world-famous as ‘The Trossachs Tour’. Inversnaid on the east bank of Loch Lomond had become a busy place. The Wordsworths had landed here in 1803. Thomas Cook took his first tour through by 1850. Here too Gerard Manley Hopkins, after his 1881 visit, wrote his poem with its rallying cry for even 21st-century conservationists ‘Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet’.  But by his time, the transportation was coordinated and efficient.

A little over half a century later, towards the end of Victoria’s reign, how different things had become! Not just extended and upgraded old coaching inns, but new hotels had sprung up. For example, one modest hostelry was rebuilt to become the vast and imposing Trossachs Hotel – still a landmark today, though now a time-share business.  Loch Katrine got its first steamer, Gypsy, by 1843 – though it was promptly sabotaged: sunk by the crew (probably) of the eight-oared galley Water Witch, who had hitherto had the monopoly on the loch! A replacement steamer, Rob Roy, was on the loch by 1846. Then the Sir Walter Scott came into service in 1900. It is back cruising Loch Katrine after an extensive restoration programme during 2022.

Meanwhile, a network of steamer services had developed on Loch Lomond. The latter half of the 19th century also saw the railways expanding to meet the demands of tourism. The Trossachs were encircled – though no lines actually penetrated the very centre. Aberfoyle and Callander had become railheads. The North British Railway stated, immodestly, in a travellers guide in 1914 that the beauty of the area was such that it was ‘the most entrancing single day’s journey in the two hemispheres’.

The journey to which it was referring quickly was already world-famous as ‘The Trossachs Tour’. Inversnaid on the east bank of Loch Lomond had become a busy place. The Wordsworths had landed here in 1803. Thomas Cook took his first tour through by 1850. Here too Gerard Manley Hopkins, after his 1881 visit, wrote his poem with its rallying cry for even 21st-century conservationists ‘Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet’.  But by his time, the transportation was coordinated and efficient.

Streams of visitors embarked at Balloch Pier Station (or got there by tram as that service survived till1928). They sailed up the loch – which had five paddle-steamers operating by the end of the 19th century - and landed at Inversnaid. They took a horse-drawn vehicle up the hill, past the old site of the garrison built to keep Rob Roy in order, along Loch Arklet but, significantly, not along the road to Aberfoyle.

Instead, they re-embarked at Stronachlachar, sailed down Loch Katrine, got back in a four-in-hand at the Trossachs pier, and boarded a train in Callander to return to, probably, Glasgow. Curiously, the coach-and-four connections between Inversnaid and Stronachlachar had the distinction of being the last regular horse-drawn public transport service when replaced by buses for the 1938 season! This was the classic Trossachs Tour – also done in reverse from Callander.

There were also variations – from Aberfoyle by way of the Dukes’ Pass to the Trossachs by coach, followed by the departure from the Trossachs Pier. This road (sometimes also called The Duke’s Road) was completed by the Duke of Montrose in 1882, around the same time as the railway arrived in Aberfoyle. It was a private toll road till it was upgraded and freed from tolls in the 1930s.

Visitors could, for example, also take the steamer up the loch to Tarbet, then return via steamer (or rail) from Arrochar – as the Clyde sea lochs were also interconnected by these regular passenger and mail-carrying steamer services.

Unavoidably, as the 20th century progressed, the ubiquitous motor car changed the pattern of how visitors flowed through the area. For example, the Rest and Be Thankful, that famous watershed, and gateway to today’s Argyll Forest Park, was reached by the military road-builders by 1748, and handed over to civic authorities by 1814 for maintenance.  Johnson and Boswell, Thomas Pennant, the Wordsworths and even the delicate John Keats (see panel) all went over the high pass. But not until the late 1930s was the ‘new’ road built, cut into the slopes above the original way.