Monday 25 August 2008

SCOTLAND THE BRAND

When the sun suddenly comes out, it is time to drop everything and GO OUT! So Iain and I decided to head out of Helensburgh, 5 miles eastwards, to Loch Lomond. He ran up the hills adjacent to Luss and I doodled around the village with the digi.

The new road along Loch Lomondside now bypasses Luss and so the whole place is now free of the heavy traffic heading up north from Glasgow. It is a charming village much used for TV and film crews who need a Scottish Landseer* sort of misty-moisty setting.


This is Colquhoun country. They were the landowners who, in the early 1800s rebuilt the village partly so that they could house workers for the slate quarry nearby.

I found this tea-room but did not have time to check the state of the scones etc. However, I was very heartened to see that it was extremely tasteful in decor, in the selection of Scottish goods for sale and that it had the most enormous, on-the-premises baked scones piled on the counter. It goes on my list of Places to Visit. (So many places like this are downright dreary, I'm afraid!)


It is a tourist trap but that being said, perhaps because it is part of the Lomond National Park, it is not tacky. Somebody is spending money here! There is a tidy car park, litter bins everywhere, decent public toilets and a not-tacky Visitors' Centre. Maybe the powers-that-be have paid a visit to Orkney to see how well these things can be done!


Loch Lomond at the end of the day. This man came in to his mooring at 5 pm having had a day out with visitors. A good day in a short season.
____________________________________________________________

* Sir Edwin Landseer, Victorian painter e.g. The Monarch of the Glen (a stag in romantic misty hill setting).

No comments: