Timberbush Tours

1 Day Loch Lomond, The Trossachs & Stirling Castle Edinburgh
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Tour Itinerary

We first travel west through the old industrial heartland of Scotland to Glasgow, Scotland's largest city and industrial capital of the old British Empire. Passing through the city centre you will see the heart of the dynamic modern city and learn about its rise to greatness within Britain.

You should look for two of the city's most imposing structures as you pass: its Cathedral begun in the late 12thC and its University founded in 1451, making it the fourth oldest in the United Kingdom and the second oldest in Scotland, whose present massive neo-Gothic buildings, now so much a focal point of the city's skyline and silhouette, were built when the University relocated and its original home demolished in the 1870s to make way for railway development!

Continuing on we twice pass over the River Clyde:

Firstly via the Kingston Bridge, a vantage point from which you will gain spectacular views of the Broomielaw, the quayside from which so many emigrants departed their homeland for the New World and beyond, and from where, in much happier and later times, Glaswegians would depart on holiday day trips 'Doon the watter' on pleasure steamers. From here also you can see the Fairfield Crane, the most visible remnant of the mighty shipyards that once lined the Clyde and once helped make it 'The Second City of the Empire'.

But all is not past, this great city has a present and a future and in this briefest of glimpses you will still see ample evidence of Glasgow's resurgence as a major international business centre.

Secondly, we recross further downstream via the Erskine Bridge from where we get a splendid view of the ancient fortress at Dunbarton as we journey on to bonnie Loch Lomond, mainland Britain's largest expanse of fresh water, watched over by Ben Lomond, from which it takes its name.
Here you have the option of time spent on a cruise around the southern parts of the loch from Balloch as far as Inchmurrin or you may prefer to walk along the loch shores and through the beautiful conservation village of Luss, with its 11th C Viking Hog-backed gravestone in the churchyard giving clear testimony of its much less peacefully intentioned early visitors!
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Leaving Loch Lomond behind us we pass through villages and rich farmland to reach the town of Aberfoyle, the 'Gateway to the Trossachs'. Often described as 'The Highlands in Miniature', the Trossachs were traditionally held by the MacGregors whose most famous son Rob Roy started life as a cattle drover before a feud with the Duke of Montrose led to him being 'outlawed'; the family's name eventually being banned altogether! Reputed acts of kindness to other put-upon locals earned him the name of 'Scottish Robin Hood'. We'll also remember the dastardly Duke, as we climb up into the Trossachs on the twisting, turning Duke's Pass, the only road running right through these lands.

Driving through the old forests, past lochs (Loch Venachar and Loch Achray) and heather clad hills you will experience for yourself what it was like to be Rob Roy, on the run and hiding out in his beloved Trossachs to escape the clutches of the Duke's men.

This was the same land so beloved of Sir Walter Scott as inspiration for novels like Rob Roy and poems like The Lady of the Lake, and whose name is borne by a pleasure steamer on nearby Loch Katrine (from the Gaelic cateran, meaning "a Highland robber"!)

This is an area rich in history and legend, blessed with beautiful hills and forests, punctuated with many romantically set lochs, and leavened with curious place names; some of which we shall pass through, such as Brig o' Turk (which has absolutely nothing to do with anyone of that nationality!) and Kilmahog where we usually stop for a well-earned comfort stop, a coffee, but especially to make the acquaintance of a noted local character - Hamish, the Heelan' Coo - (he's male actually!)

Our next stop of the day is at the mighty Stirling Castle, royal home of the Stewart dynasty, known as the 'Key to the Kingdom', its commanding position above the plain on which it stands, guarding what was, for centuries, the lowest crossing point of the River Forth, and bestriding the route between Highands and Lowlands made it the most strategically important fortress in Scotland. You will have time to visit the castle, and hear of the exploits of men like William Wallace, Robert Bruce - King of Scots, King James V and Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The Castle, impressive enough in itself, is home to the Regimental Museum of one of our fearsome and illustrious Highland regiments, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, as well as affording unparalleled panoramic views over the surrounding countryside: across the site of Wallace's victory at the Battle of Stirling Brig to the National Memorial to his memory on Abbey Craig beyond to the East and to the site of Robert the Bruce's victory at the Battle of Bannockburn on the Southern horizon. Whilst within walking distance there are fascinating historical and architecturally significant buildings well worth the visit: Argyll's Lodgings, the Old Town Gaol.

After our stay in Stirling it is a pleasant, relaxed trip that brings us back into Edinburgh for our Tour's end. On the way you will catch a glimpse of Linlithgow Palace where Mary, Queen of Scots, was born in December 1542, and the House of Binns, where General Sir Tam Dalyell is said to have played cards against the Devil - and won!

You are then allowed a choice. We can turn off and travel across country to get a view of the twin impressive feats of engineering that are our two Forth Bridges: the one, a modern suspension road bridge, opened in 1964, and the other the mighty cantilevered marvel that is the rail bridge, opened in 1890, before entering Edinburgh from the North.

Or we can continue past the red shale bings, relics of the area's industrial past and testament to Scottish entrepreneurial skill, creativity and vision - the development of fuel oil manufacture by James 'Paraffin' Young - and back into Edinburgh from the West.

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Tour Itinerary