This loch has at the present day a two-fold attraction--historical and
piscatorial. Like most other places of interest in Scotland, the story
of Loch Leven and its castle clings round the chequered career of Mary
Queen of Scots. Here, for eleven months, the beautiful Stuart Queen
lay a prisoner, and eventually her escape was arranged with all the
romantic devotion and quiet daring with which she was ever able to
inspire all who fell under the spell of her charms or the pity of her
fate. Here, as Burns has taught us to believe, she uttered that sad
'Lament on the Approach of Spring' which forms one of the most
touching bits of the national poet's writings,
'Now Nature hangs her mantle green
On every blooming tree,
And spreads her sheets of daisies white
Out o'er the grassy lea.
* * * * *
Now blooms the lily by the bank,
The primrose down the brae;
The hawthorn's budding in the glen,
And milk-white is the slae:
The meanest hind in fair Scotland
May rove their sweets amang,
But I, the Queen of a' Scotland,
Maun lie in prison strang.'
The waters encompassing the castle form a loch of an irregular square
form, with a maximum length of four miles, and over two miles wide.
The island on which the castle stands is not the largest, there being,
at the eastern end, a large island named after St. Serf, and still
showing the remains of a priory, originally Culdee, and of which
Wyntoun, author of the _Orygynale Cronykil_, was once the head. The
castle, a massive square keep, with a quadrangle of fortified
buildings around it, is of great antiquity, dating, it is alleged,
from Pictish times. The walls of the keep are in good preservation,
and the lower floors, being vaulted, still remain. The surrounding
wall, with circular towers, can be walked upon, but the main buildings
in the area are only indicated by lines of foundation walls. From the
side nearest in our view a sunken causeway formerly connected the
castle with the promontory on which Kinross House stands, and it can
still be traced at the bottom of the loch.
The surroundings of the loch include the Western Lomond, and the
Bishop Hill on the north-west, and Benarty on the south. Regarding the
last named hill, a retired politician is said to have written the
following couplet, in retirement here,
'Oh blest is the man wha belangs to nae party
But sits at his door and glowers at Benarty.'
The district traversed in reaching the loch impresses the visitor as
being fruitful and prosperous, and there are abundant evidences around
of much mineral wealth. It is, however, for angling purposes that Loch
Leven attracts the greater number of its visitors. The Loch Leven
trout are active and firm-fleshed, and are in much esteem both for the
sport they yield and for the table. At the west end of the loch, close
by the town of Kinross, boats are let for angling, and besides many
private parties, a large number of clubs hold stated competitions on
Loch Leven, and the 'baskets' made, and the prospects of sport, are
the subject of daily reports in the Edinburgh and Glasgow newspapers.
Beds and boats are telegraphed for in advance, regarding which a good
story is told of an Edinburgh journalist, once famous with rod and
line, who first sent a wire to the unsophisticated Kinrossians. When
he arrived he saw that he was unexpected, and asked 'did you not get
my message?' The reply was, 'Ou ay, we got a letter, but as it _wasna
in your ain handwriting_, we paid nae attention to it!'