Trossachs

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Often described as the Highlands in miniature, the Trossachs area boasts a magnificent diversity of scenery, with dramatic peaks and mysterious, forest-covered slopes that live up to all the images ever produced of Scotland's wild land. It is country ripe for stirring tales of brave kilted clansmen, a role fulfilled by Rob Roy Macgregor, the seventeenth-century outlaw whose name seems to attach to every second waterfall, cave and barely discernible path. Strictly speaking, the name "Trossachs", normally translated as either "bristly country" or "crossing place", originally referred only to the wooded glen between Loch Katrine and Loch Achray, but today it is usually taken as being the whole area from Callander in the east to Queen Elizabeth Forest Park in the west, right up to the eastern banks of Loch Lomond.

The Trossachs' high tourist profile was largely attributable in the early days to Sir Walter Scott, whose novels Lady of the Lake and Rob Roy were set in and around the area. According to one contemporaneous account, after Scott's Lady of the Lake was published in 1810, the number of carriages passing Loch Katrine rose from 50 the previous year to 270. Since then, neither the popularity nor beauty of the region have waned, and in high season the place is jam-packed with coaches full of tourists as well as walkers and mountain-bikers taking advantage of the easily accessed richness of the scenery. Autumn is a better time to come, when the hills are blanketed in rich, rusty colours and the crowds are thinner. In terms of where to stay, Aberfoyle has a rather dowdy air while Callander feels rather overrun, and you're often better seeking out one of the guest houses or B&Bs tucked away in secluded corners of the region.

The Trossachs Trundler is a minibus which loops usefully round Callander, Loch Katrine and Aberfoyle four times a day from July to mid-Sept (not Wed), stopping at various points en route; contact any tourist office for details. The bus is timed to connect with sailings of the SS Sir Walter Scott on Loch Katrine, and costs £4 for a day-pass or £8 including the bus fare from Stirling to Callander.