Discover History and Culture

That cold period also finally ended –but the first Stone Age folk to reach Loch Lomond’s shores probably didn’t get there till around 7,000 year ago. Fast forward another two millennia and there were the first farmers, with their herds requiring grazing pasture, followed on by the crannog dwellers, the fort builders, and on until the local life in the Iron Age was disturbed by encounters with ‘foreign’ invaders with superior weapons technology –the Romans were pushing north!
They didn’t stay long amid the lochs and wooded slopes and instead what was to become the National Park later became a meeting place of Dark Age kingdoms –of Britons, Picts and Scots. Later still, the clan system involved in a united Scotland – united in name, but the Park area saw many clashes of culture across the Highland line.

Steam propulsion, at first by water, then with the arrival of the railways, helped increase the area’s popularity. The 20th century brought further changes: walking, rock-climbing, cycling, sailing and a whole range of leisure pursuits found expression in the Park –helped by the flexibility and freedom of the motor car.
Yet Loch Lomond and the Trossachs area has adapted to serve all these needs: from the first adventurous explorers of the Romantic era, all the way to the sophisticated visitor of today with high demands and expectations of leisure time!