We are ending our adventures around the UK National Parks - and the year - in Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park in Scotland. If you love mountains and lakes (as I do), then this is a great national park to be in. There are 21 Munros (mountains over 3000ft high) and 22 large lochs - as well as lots of smaller mountains and lochs. The Park is named after Loch Lomond (the largest lake in the UK by surface area and deeper than the North Sea) and the Great Trossachs Forest (one of the UK's largest National Nature Reserves). Being the winter, we didn't bring our canoes, but I would like to come back again in the summer and explore the lochs. Instead, we planned to spend our time hiking and ideally bagging our first Munro. We were going to climb Ben Lomond, one of the most popular Munros and hopefully not too challenging for the kids, but sadly the weather was not ideal. With predictions of gale force winds and heavy rain, it seemed neither safe nor enjoyable to head up a mountain. A lot of snow fell in the days preceding our visit, with the result that the roads and the (very steep) driveway of our holiday cottage (the Hayloft) were icy yesterday. We were not convinced it would be sensible to attempt to drive anywhere so we decided to spend our first day on a walk around Aberfoyle. ![]() From our cottage we walked into town, turned right onto Manse Road, passed the cemetery and head up to Doon Hill to look for fairies. Legend has it that Robert Kirk, a minister in Aberfoyle in the 17th century, investigated and recorded the habits of the fairies who inhabit Doon Hill. In 1691 he published his book, 'The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies,' and as punishment for revealing their secrets, the fairies stole away his spirit. His body was found on top of Doon Hill next to a big Scot's Pine and it is said his spirit is imprisoned here. Today, visitors leave messages to the fairies on clooties (strips of cloth) tied to the tree. Sadly we didn't find any fairies but we did have a nice walk and managed to get home before the really heavy rain hit. ![]() Further heavy rain was predicted for today, so we drove to Loch Lomond Shores to check out the loch, have lunch and visit the Sea Life Aquarium. An indoor activity seemed sensible! My favourite creatures at the aquarium were the garden eels, which Jay brilliantly compared to the worms in the Mr Men books! As we left the Aquarium, the rain cleared and we had a good view of the mountains beyond the loch. I think we could do with a lot more time to visit this National Park so we hope to be back one summer to paddle on the lochs and climb the mountains, and hopefully we will have better weather for being outdoors!
1 Comment
|
Archives
December 2017
Categories
All
|