Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond, part of Scotland's first National Park, is a place of great natural beauty. It's a huge body of water being some 24 miles long and up to 5 miles wide in places. The wonderful shoreline is somewhat marred by a hideous visitor centre adjacent to the Loch Lomond Shores shopping complex. Fortunately you don't have to look at this when you're actually inside it but can instead concentrate on the glory of the loch and the wonderful Scottish landscape.
The area, like the rest of the Loch Lomonds and Trossachs National Park, is a popular tourist attraction for both sightseers and shoppers and there are many hotels in the area along with bed and breakfast accomodation etc.
Wallabies
If you're really lucky then a boat trip on Loch Lomond might include a sighting of the reclusive wallabies of Inchconnachan. Wallabies are often described as looking like minature kangaroos and seeing them living wild in Scotland certainly counts as "strange"! The Loch Lomond wallabies were introduced deliberately in 1975 by Lady Arran Colquhoun who released them on Inchconnachan island. They wallaby colony has managed to survive to this day with numbers estimated at around 30.The Bonnie Bonnie Banks
You probably know the song "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond". You may even have sung it - or possibly heard me "singing" it after a night at the local pub!What you may not know is that - according to some
accounts - the famous chorus relates directly to ancient
beliefs about the spirit world. The relevant lyrics are:
| O you’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the
low road
And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye For me and my true love will ne-er meet again On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond. |
What has that to do with ghosts and hauntings? Well, the theory is that the song was written by or about a Highlander in the Rebellion forces who was captured by the English. He was put to death whilst a comrade of his was set free. The"low road" of the song is the underworld path which it was believed the spirits used to return to their home. By use of this ghostly low road the executed solder would be back at his Loch Lomond home before his fellow soldier who would have to walk the slow, earthly route back to Scotland.
Yet despite returning home swiftly the spirit of the dead soldier would never again be reunited with his true love: they would ne'er meet again on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
