Scotland/Scots > Black's picturesque tourist of Scotland

LOCH ARD, ETC.
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the skirts. In the upper loch is a rocky islet, on which are the
mouldering ruins of a stronghold of Murdoch, Duke of Albany.
Near the head of the lake, on the northern side, behind the
House of Ledeard, is the romantic waterfall, thus accurately
described in Waverley :—“ It was not so remarkable either for
great height or quantity of water, as for the beautiful accom¬
paniments which made the spot interesting. After a broken
cataract of about twenty feet, the stream was received in a
large natural basin filled to the brim with water, which, where
the bubbles of the fall subsided, was so exquisitely clear, that
although it was of great depth, the eye could discern each
pebble at the bottom. Eddying round this reservoir, the brook
found its way over a broken part of the ledge, and formed
a second fall, which seemed to seek the very abyss ; then
wheeling out beneath from among the smooth dark rocks,
which it had polished for ages, it wandered murmuring down
the glen, forming the stream up which Waverley had just
ascended.”
A footpath strikes ofif towards Ben Lomond, by which the
tourist may cross the hill and reach Rowardennan, on the banks
of Loch Lomond. Some travellers, after visiting the two lochs
above named, have crossed over the hill from Aberfoyle to the
Trosachs, a distance of five miles, but the pedestrian will do
well to pursue the road along the margin of Loch Chon, a
secluded sheet of water three miles in length, hemmed in by
fine sloping hills feathered with natural coppice wood. This
will conduct him, after leaving the loch, into the road leading
from Loch Katrine to Inversnaid on Loch Lomond, and will
afford him an opportunity of inspecting the extensive works for
supplying Glasgow with water from Loch Katrine, a distance
of thirty-six miles. For the first seven miles from the loch
the water is carried through successive tunnels blasted from the
solid rock. The contract for this portion of the work is
J100,000, and is to be completed in four years.