The drive from the Lakes District to Oban via the city of Inveraray (future post… 🙂 ) provides dreamy vistas and our first look at the dramatic landscapes of the Highlands, as well as historic sites and ample places to pull out for a picnic.
The first Loch that one encounters while heading north and west is Loch Lomond. Good pictures of this famous loch are very hard to come by. There are pullouts on both sides of the two lane road, but often they are just rest areas and picnic areas. Getting to the waters edge is actually quite a challenge. In order to get these pictures, I had to climb down a steep slope with no trail.
Twenty-four miles long and speckled with islands, Loch Lomond is Great Britain’s biggest lake by surface area, and second in volume only to Loch Ness. Thanks largely to its easy proximity to Glasgow (only 15 miles away), this scenic lake is a favorite retreat for Scots as well as foreign tourists. Ben Lomond (3,196 feet) looms over its eastern bank.
Loch Lomond’s biggest claim to fame is its role in a beloved folk song: “Ye’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll be in Scotland afore ye… For me and my true love will never meet again, on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.”
There are various interpretations of the song’s poignant meaning – here’s one:
Celtic culture believes that fairies return the souls of the deceased to their homeland through the soil. After the disastrous Scottish loss at the Battle of Culloden, Jacobite ringleaders were arrested and taken for trial in faraway London. In some cases, accused pairs were given a choice: One of you will die, and the other will live. The song is a bitter-sweet reassurance, sung from the condemned to the survivor, that the soon-to-be deceased will take the spiritual “low road” back to his Scottish homeland – where his soul will be reunited with the living, who will return on the physical “high road” (over land).
We drive over an isthmus between Loch Lomond and a sea inlet. Halfway up the loch, we find the town of Tarbet – the Viking word for isthmus, a common name on Scottish maps. Imagine, a thousand years ago, Vikings dragging their ships across this narrow stretch of land to reach Loch Lomond.
We also passed the village of Arrochar that takes us along the banks of another Loch – Loch Long. The scenery crescendos as you pull away from the loch and twist up over the mountains and through a pine forest, getting our first glimpse of bald highland mountains – it’s clear that we’ve just crossed the Highland Boundary Fault. There are waterfalls around almost every corner… the signs are not only in English but also in Gaelic. As we climb into more rugged territory – up a valley called Glen Croe – we are mindful that the roads connecting the Lowlands with the Highlands were originally a military project designed to facilitate government quelling of the Highland clans.
After pulling up thru this valley, we stop to stretch our legs at the Rest-and-Be-Thankful Pass. The colorful name comes from the 19th century, when just reaching this summit was exhausting. At the top of the military road, just past the last picnic table, there’s actually a stone dated 1814 put there by the military with that phrase.
As we drive on, we enjoy the dramatic green hills. We are on the lookout for little bits of hillside highlighted by sunbeams. Saint Steves introduced a new term to us – “SOOT” – Sun’s Out Over There. 🙂
Our way down the other side of the pass, we come to Loch Fyne – a saltwater “sea loch” that is famous for its shellfish. In fact, Loch Fyne is the namesake of a popular UK restaurant chain with locations across the UK – the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar and Deli, in a big white building at the end of the loch. This is the original – and we decided to stop for lunch. Our review of the lunch will be our next post… 🙂