The pictures on this page come from “Mountain Moor and Loch”
Illustrated by Pen and Pencil on the route of the West Highland Railway,
published in 1894.
We tend to believe that Queen Victoria instigated tourism in
the Scottish Highlands but her interest was sparked by literary figures. In 1803, William Wordsworth, accompanied by
his sister Dorothy, and by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first visited the Trossachs
and other parts of Scotland. They were
soon followed by Sir Walter Scott, who published ‘The Lady of the Lake’ in
1810. Not only did Scott become more
famous, but so did the Highlands.
But it was the opening of the West Highland Railway line in
1894 which prompted this book. Running
from Craigendoran Junction to Fort William, with fifteen stations formed in the
style of Swiss chalets, it is, in my opinion, the most beautiful 100 mile
journey in Britain. I do have to admit
bias, since I was born on this route!
Craigendoran was just a hamlet at the east end of
Helensburgh where the Gareloch meets the River Clyde, but in 1882 it became an
important 5 platform station, partly because of the pier which was built there
by the North British Steam Packet Company.
From here you could board a steamer and go “doon the watter” to places
such as Dunoon or Rothesay on the Isle of Bute.
I remember fondly our yearly boat trips from Craigendoran which sadly
stopped in the early 1960s. By 1972 the
pier was closed and the station buildings demolished.
The railway arrived too late for passengers wishing to
travel on Bell’s Comet from Helensburgh pier to Greenock. Henry Bell was an engineer and a man of
ideas, who owned the Baths Inn but had ambitions to build the first commercial
steamship in Britain. In 1800 and 1803,
he was unsuccessful in persuading the government to fund this enterprise so he
oversaw the building of his design, The Comet, himself. Completed in 1812, it was 30 tons, 3
horsepower and travelled at 5 miles per hour.
Later lengthened, its speed increased to 6 mph. Unfortunately, it was shipwrecked in 1820.
Accurately, the anonymous writer of the book describes the
Gareloch thus,
All along the course
of the Loch it is a fairy retreat, silent, secluded well sheltered and glowing
with colour, the many tinted trees and the heather-clad slopes being reflected
in the glassy water as in a mirror.
Soon the scene changes as the train skirts the edge of Loch
Long, narrow, deep and impressive. At
Arrochar and Tarbet station, the traveller has the choice of alighting to stay
by Loch Lomond side, perhaps boarding a steamer for a circumnavigation of the
Loch.
There are many interesting tales in this book of the
massacres at Glencoe and Glen Fruin and other stories of how Rob Roy and Robert the Bruce hid in the nearby
countryside.
Although the author and illustrator are unnamed, there is an
essay at the end of the book written by Rev. Norman Macleod, D. D with pictures
by Joseph Adam. It includes this amusing
passage,
One old Highlander
spoke to us frankly of the changes which had taken place in his day. "I
and my father," he said, "used to guide the few travellers who came
here up Ben Lomond. But no one will take my road now. And that is very curious,
because it is the best! But the fact is," he added, with a peculiar smile;
"more men are fools than I once believed. And what have you of it now but
this—that a Lowlander--one of the name of Scott, or Sir Walter Scott, who knew
nothing about the country—wrote a heap of lies on the Trossachs. I do assure
you he told stories that neither I nor my father ever heard about this person
and that who never lived here —about an Eelen and a FitzJames, and trash of
that sort: Of course, ignorant Sassenachs take all that for gospel, and make
new roads and build new hotels, and get new boats, and even steamboats and new
guides, who laugh at the tourists and get their money. And so, you see, no one
comes my old way to Ben Lomond now. But och! it's a sad sight, most lamentable,
to see decent folk believing lies, lies, nothing but lies."
