It is not often that I come across some old glass slides that identify a person or persons at their work. In this case it is the work of a boatman, Walter M‘Gregor, at the Loch Lomondside hamlet of Inversnaid in 1892.

Walter M‘Gregor

Inversnaid features in history as a convenient spot on the remoter east bank of Loch Lomond where access to Loch Arklet and Loch Katrine could be obtained. The Arklet falls are a distinguishing feature, though much diminished in recent years since the Loch was converted to a reservoir. Inversnaid is in Montrose country and there was a military garrison posted there in the late 17th century. Around 1790, the Duke of Montrose had a lodge built there for fishing and hunting, and the spot achieved fame with Wordsworth’s poem “To a Highland Girl” from his tour of the Highlands in 1803. However, it was the publication of the “Lady of the Lake,” and “Rob Roy” by Walter Scott that stimulated the tourist trade resulting in the introduction of a steamboat on Loch Lomond in 1817.

Arklet Falls at Inversnaid

A Hotel was opened around 1820 to accommodate the increased numbers of wealthy visitors. It was greatly expanded in 1877 and subsequent developments have also been made. At the Inversnaid Hotel, tourists could disembark from the Loch steamers and board horse drawn conveyances to take them to Stronachlacher to complete a tour on Loch Katrine. The tour could also be run in reverse.

Inversnaid Hotel before enlargement (Washington Wilson)

The enlarged Inversnaid Hotel in the 1890s

Loch Katrine coach at Inversnaid. Horse drawn coaches were retained into the 1930s.

The steamers of 1892 were run by the North British Steam Packet Company who had taken over the vessels of the Loch Lomond Steamboat Company in 1888, and would in turn relinquish control to the Dumbarton & Balloch Joint Line Committee just a few years later in 1896. The principal vessels were The Queen, built by Messrs Caird & Co., Greenock in 1884 and Empress, built by Messrs Napier, Shanks, & Bell, at Yoker.

The Queen at Inversnaid

Empress leaving Inversnaid

Walter M‘Gregor was born in 1806 in Drymen to Malcolm M‘Gregor and Elisabeth Graham and was baptized on September 10th of that year at Drymen Parish Church. In 1842, on December 3rd, he married Agnes M‘Intyre at Buchanan Church and in the 1881 census he is listed as a widower, living at Blair, near Cashel between Balmaha and Rowardennan, with his daughter Janet Campbell, his son-in-law, John, and their young family. John Campbell was a shepherd. Walter was 74 at the time of the census, with his occupation listed as boatman.

Walter M‘Gregor with the fishing boats

Walter M‘Gregor at Inversnaid

In the photographs from 1892, Walter would have been 85.

It was associated with the Hotel that the boatmen were employed. Their duties were varied. Sportsmen might hire them to row them to fishing spots on Loch Lomond or Loch Arklet; tourists might hire them to row along the shore edge of the Loch to such spots as “Rob Roy’s Prison” or “Rob Roy’s Cave;” others might hire them to cross the Loch to Tarbet, although the regularly scheduled steamer services provided good connections.

A boatman in “Rob Roy’s Canoe”

Postcard of a Loch Lomond boatman

Mr Blair, the hotel proprietor, was an enterprising individual. He secured, from the Duke of Montrose, the hire of his steam-launch which parties could engage for pleasure sailing on the Loch. (Evening News, August 1, 1884). The steam launch would have been the wooden hulled Violet, built for the Duke in 1880 by Messrs Matthew Paul & Co., Dumbarton. She was 50 feet in length. In 1890, the Duke had a new yacht built, the steam-powered, wooden-hulled schooner, also named Violet. She was a little larger at 56 feet and features in many old photographs of Balmaha Bay.

The Duke of Montrose’s yacht Violet in Balmaha Bay (Gilchrist)