Many of the lochs of which we have spoken have the advantage of Loch
Tay as regards the number of their visitors, and their repute in
distant parts. But in no case is greater beauty to be seen than here,
and no spot in Scotland will more fully repay the labour of travelling
to see it. It lies surrounded with splendid hills, Ben Lawers on the
north proudly towering over the scene. It is very finely wooded over
all its banks, and its slightly irregular form creates change and
variety at every mile of the way. It is the merit of Loch Tay that now
the visitor has 'three courses' before him, like a great statesman of
our day. When he leaves Killin station at the upper end, or Aberfeldy
station at the lower end, he may follow the coach route on the north
side, or he may prefer the less public road on the south side, or he
may sail on the bosom of the water in the steamer, the _Lady of the
Lake_, launched in 1882 by the Earl of Breadalbane. From Killin, the
direction of our view, the north road, which is generally followed,
lies to the left. Just at the head of the road--one of the roads made
by General Wade--is seen the ivy-covered ruin of Finlarig Castle,
situated amidst fine woods, and having near it the burial place of the
Breadalbane family. The Queen, visiting Taymouth Castle in 1842,
lunched at Auchmore, where the south road strikes off. She speaks of
the scene as enchanting, and it would be difficult to find a more
appropriate word. Ben Lawers, the ascent of which is made from Lawers
inn, has not many superiors in height in Scotland, and its ascent is
not difficult, while the view from it is superb. Behind Ben Lawers,
and further on running to a junction with the valley in which Loch Tay
lies, is the grand district of Glen Lyon, of which many think, that
from its upper reaches in the Forest of Mamlorn to where the Lyon
falls into the Tay, there is not a glen in Scotland so weird and yet
so verdantly beautiful. The ascent of Ben Lawers, it may be mentioned,
has special charms for the botanist, boasting amidst many rare plants
the drooping saxifrage (_S. cernua_,) not elsewhere found in this
country. The district abounds in water and in waterfalls, including
the falls of Acharn, which are seen from the north side, but may be
visited if the south road be taken. From near Aberfeldy, when the
noble river Tay, the birth of this grand loch, has run some miles of
its course, the tourist naturally turns aside to visit the falls of
Moness, 'the epitome of waterfalls,' as Pennant says, on a stream
which flows through the town of Aberfeldy. Here is the scene so
exquisitely sung by Burns;
'The braes ascend like lofty wa's
The foaming stream, deep-roaring, fa's
O'er hung wi' fragrant, spreading shaws,
The Birks o' Aberfeldy.'
Close by Kenmore, at the lower end of the loch is a wooded island, on
which lies buried Princess Sybilla, daughter of Henry I. and wife of
the Scots King, Alexander I. In the inn-parlour at Kenmore Burns wrote
some lines of intense feeling and adoration, in which he dwells on
'The sweeping theatre of hanging woods;
Th' incessant roar of headlong tumbling floods,'
--twin characteristics of this most attractive region.