Sir Walter Scott on Loch Katrine

Sir Walter Scott on Loch Katrine

Due to its inaccessibility, the beauty of Loch Katrine was little known to those who did not live there until Sir Walter Scott published his poem "The Lady of the Lake" in 1810. After that, it became a favourite place to visit not just by tourists from abroad but by Scots living in the Lowlands of Scotland.

Loch Katrine's name may be derived from the Brythonic (a form of early Welsh) word "cethern" meaning "furies" possibly because of the many mountain streams which tumble down the mountain slopes. The Scots Gaelic word "cateran" later came to mean Highland robber, quite appropriate when you take into account the number of stolen cattle hidden in the area over the centuries. The MacGregor clan roamed this part of the country and Rob Roy MacGregor was born at Glengyle on the banks of the loch in 1671

The reason for the control of traffic both on the loch and around it is that Loch Katrine is one of the major sources of water for the city of Glasgow. In the early 19th century, water of variable quality for the rapidly expanding city was from private wells distributed in large barrels. In a far-sighted project, the city built an 8ft-diameter aqueduct 26 miles in length from the loch to a reservoir on the outskirts of Glasgow and then distributed it by pipes across the city. The system was formally opened by Queen Victoria in 1859. The success of the project was seen a few years later when the next cholera epidemic broke out and Glasgow was relatively unaffected. The scheme supplies over 100 million gallons of water to Glasgow every day.


There has been a steam ship on Loch Katrine since 1843. But they had to be built elsewhere, cut into pieces and reassembled at the loch. The SS Sir Walter Scott was built in 1899 at Denny on the Clyde at Dumbarton, sailed up the river Leven to Loch Lomond, then dismantled and transferred to Loch Katrine. She is now the oldest surviving screw-steamer in regular service in Scotland. A diesel-powered replacement is unlikely because of the risk of contamination to the water. The engine room of the venerable ship is open for all to see and a feature is just how quiet the vessel is.

More details available from - www.rampantscotland.com