Day 11 - Of Lochs, Firths and Bens

Day 11, July 14, 2013:

Well we actually managed to get out of Honeyholm a little after 10:00, the weather is unusually bright, sunny and warm for Scotland and today it crept above 20 degrees.  We headed into the Trossachs which is a national park of rugged mountains, forests and of course beautiful Lochs.  A near I can determine a Loch is a lake, a Firth is widening or outlet of a river and all mountains start with Ben – as in Ben Lomond.  We went for a 4 mile hike along the edge of Loch Katrine, a smaller Loch but important as it has been the water supply for Glasgow since the mid 1850’s.  It is sailed by a turn of the century refurbished steam ship – the Walter Scott and it is this loch that really brought the beauty of the highlands of Scotland to the rest of the world and opened the country up to tourism.  This loch has been painted; there have been poems, stories and songs dedicated to its beauty and rightly so.  The loch is a little over ten miles long and less than a mile wide, but it is surrounded by mature forests of pine, oak and birch, caggy hills and boulders for clambering and beautiful mountains.  You can walk all the way down one side and take the steamship back however we chose to simply stroll in a couple of miles to a beautiful viewpoint and return for a picnic lunch.  The weather was beautiful however you never have a good hair day in Scotland as the wind howls continuously down the lochs.

 

After lunch we divided forces, returning the boys to Honeyholm to bounce, fish and play while Martin, Pauline, Mary Rose and I took on a hike into the hills over Loch Lomond.  Now Loch Lomond (on the Bonnie, Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond – sing it in your head) is a sizeable Loch, surrounded by rolling hills, a kinder, gentler loch much akin to our Muskoka region with hotels, cottages and boating around the Loch.  We hiked up to hills in the forest preserve on the East side of the Loch, north of Balmaha partially up the side of Beinn Uird.  An hour of hiking took us over farmers’ fields, through over old dry stone walls (where I added a very Canadian Inukshuk) and past a recreation of a ‘Shieling’ or temporary Sheppard’s hut made of twigs, sod and whatever was lying around (think Hobbit hole!)  It was surprisingly hot and sunny but the view from the top was stunning and the constant breeze a welcome companion.  Going down was much faster, back to our cottage for another brilliant late dinner in the garden, a cribbage match and bed.  Tomorrow – castles!