Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, United Kingdom

A wide view of Loch Lomond at sunset with purple heather in the foreground and a golden reflection on the water.

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park offers loch, glen and hill within easy reach of Glasgow, if the weather agrees.

The place

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park covers a broad slice of Scotland's southern highlands, north of the Glasgow conurbation, with the loch as its southern anchor and the Trossachs glens folding away to the east. In Gaelic it is Pàirc Nàiseanta Loch Laomainn is nan Tròisichean. The designation dates from 2002, when this became a national park of Scotland and a public body in its own right. The land runs to about 1,865 km (720 sq mi), with a boundary near 350 km (220 mi) long, which puts it fourth among national parks in the British Isles. Twenty-one Munros stand inside the boundary. Ben Lomond is the familiar one above the loch; Ben More, Ben Lui, Beinn Challuim and two hills that share the name Ben Vorlich are among the rest, with twenty Corbetts besides. The Highland Boundary Fault cuts the park in two. South of that line the ground is lower, greener and long settled; north of it the rock hardens into mountain. At Loch Lomond the fault is easy to read: it crosses Inchmurrin, Creinch, Torrinch and Inchcailloch, then climbs the ridge of Conic Hill, so the islands themselves sit on the join between lowland and highland. In 2017 the park recorded 2.9 million visits, 2.1 million of them day trips and 783,000 by people who stayed overnight. Glasgow's proximity explains that pressure. People come for the water, the ridges and the wildlife, and the shores fill quickly on a bright weekend.

Its story

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park has drawn outsiders for centuries because the Central Belt sits just to the south. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell came along the loch in 1773 and Johnson, used to softer country, thought the shores offered little but rough, unworked ground. The Trossachs, the wooded country at the foot of Loch Katrine, became a set piece of Scottish touring, reached by steamer between the pier and Stronachlachar, or on foot and by bicycle along the lane that circles the head of the loch. On Inchmahome, in the Lake of Menteith, a ruined priory marks a quieter episode: the child who would reign as Mary, Queen of Scots was kept on the island while her guardians steered her clear of factions that threatened her. The hills entered the modern walking calendar as Munros and Corbetts, and the loch as a place for boats. Water sports and long walks replaced the carriage tour as the reason to come. By 2017 the annual count stood at 2.9 million visits. Careless camping left litter and noise along Loch Lomond and through the Trossachs, and those stretches were closed to wild camping even though a night outdoors remains a general right elsewhere in Scotland. The authority created in 2002 now has to balance open hills with shores that cannot absorb every weekend.

What to see

Culture

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park sits on a cultural border as well as a geological one. South of the Highland Boundary Fault the speech, farms and villages feel Lowland; north of it the hills carry Gaelic names and Munro-bagging habits. The Gaelic title, Pàirc Nàiseanta Loch Laomainn is nan Tròisichean, is still the formal name beside the English. Visiting here is mostly an outdoor culture: people walk, climb, paddle and watch wildlife, and the loch has been a pleasure ground for Glasgow since long before the park existed. Johnson's 1773 dismissal of the shore as mere ruggedness reads now as a clash of taste. Pubs in the villages are the social rooms after a day out, and whisky from stills just beyond the boundary, Glengoyne near Drymen and Deanston at Doune, belongs to the same map. The pressure of day trips has its own folklore of traffic jams, litter and noisy camps, which is why the park's rules are part of local conversation. If you wild camp, stay off both banks of Loch Lomond and out of the Trossachs, and leave no trace of a fire or a meal.

What to wear

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park is not a costume destination, but the cloth of the southern Highlands is still part of the picture. Tartan, woven wool with a sett tied to a district or a family, appears at weddings, Highland games and formal dinners; the kilt is the garment, usually wool, worn with a jacket for those occasions rather than for the hill. Tweed jackets and heavy wool jumpers belong to the same textile habit, made for rain and cold. Day to day, people in Balloch, Callander, Luss and the smaller glens dress like the rest of Scotland: waterproof jackets, fleece layers, jeans or walking trousers, and trainers in the village. On the ridges the uniform changes to boots, a shell jacket and a pack. A visitor should copy that, not the kilt. The latitude is unforgiving for the height of these hills, so a mild hour by the water can still mean a cold, wet wind on Ben Lomond or the Cobbler. A visitor needs a waterproof, an insulating layer, and boots that grip mud, scree and wet rock.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. September and October bring early autumn colour to Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, after the first cold nights. May and June colour the gardens near Dunoon, especially the rhododendrons at Benmore. Winter is for experienced hillwalkers only: mist, ice and a wet wind on modest heights can become dangerous.

How long. 3-4

Getting there. Glasgow is the gate for Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. Queen Street's low-level trains reach Balloch via Dumbarton about twice an hour, in under an hour. The West Highland Line leaves the high-level station and calls at Tarbet and Arrochar, then Ardlui and Crianlarich, a few times a day. London's Caledonian sleeper joins that route near Dumbarton, without passing through Glasgow, and goes on to Crianlarich and Fort William. Citylink coaches from Buchanan bus station follow the A82 along the west shore through Luss to Tarbet. Glasgow Central trains run to Gourock for the ferry to Dunoon, and past Dunoon a bike or a car is the only practical way on.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources