Loch Lomond National Park & Stirling Castle

Just a 40-minute drive from Glasgow in your luxury mini coach and we’re in the heart of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. This is Rob Roy MacGregor country, stomping ground of this Scots folk hero who’s immortalised in fiction and film. Was he a legendary soldier and clan leader, or a villain and outlaw? We’ll let you decide.

Our sojourn begins in the quaint, conservation village of Luss, where tidy rows of cottages stretch down to the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond and are brimming with floral displays in summer. A Christian settlement for at least 1500 years, Luss is a tourists’ favourite, especially its picture postcard Church founded by the Celtic Saint MacKessog. In its churchyard lies a legacy of the lawless Vikings: their 11th century ‘hogback’ Viking grave, a stone-carved sculpture.

You can learn more about the area by joining at optional 1 hour boat cruise from Balloch. It provides beautiful views over the loch and nearby Ben Lomond. For those who choose to stay on dry land, you can enjoy a stroll in Balloch Country Park.

From Loch Lomond your driver-guide will deliver you through the dramatic Duke’s Pass and deep into the Trossachs, the ‘Highlands in miniature’. Majestic Munros - mountains above 3000 feet - laced with rushing waterfalls, reign over a kingdom of forest, river and loch. Opinions differ on the meaning behind the Trossachs, but our favourite is from the Gaelic meaning ‘the bristly country’.

This landscape inspired Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake and his novel Rob Roy and we think you’ll be inspired too, whether to pick up your camera or your notebook. Look out for a favourite photographic subject, our woolly, long-horned Highland cows. We call them hairy coos! Our small group stops for lunch in the National park.

Crowning our Trossachs tour is a visit to Stirling Castle, great royal residence of Stuart Kings and of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was declared monarch here in 1543, aged only nine months. It’s an imposing sight, perched on its crag, and you’ll have 90 minutes to explore this historic gem. The banqueting hall is the largest of its kind ever built in Scotland and you can imagine the colour, noise and opulence of its heyday. The Royal Palace is one of the best-preserved Renaissance buildings in the UK and you’ll be transported back to the childhood years of Mary, Queen of Scots. Or you might prefer a stroll in the serene Queen Anne Gardens. However you choose to spend your time at Stirling Castle prepare to be enchanted and amazed.

This whole area has close associations with King Robert the Bruce, Bonnie Prince Charlie and famous Scots patriot William Wallace who was immortalised in the film Braveheart with his cry for ‘freedom’. From the panoramic windows of your coach you’ll spot the 150-year-old National Wallace Monument, a 67-metre high tower perched on the Abbey Craig that commemorates Scotland’s ‘Braveheart’. It overlooks the site of the battle of Stirling Bridge where Wallace defeated a much larger, advancing English army in 1297.

As we wave goodbye to Wallace, we return to drop you off in Glasgow.

Please note that this tour may sometimes be done in reverse.