GLEN LYON. 



Iv 



from an elbow of the bank about two miles further up the glen, an 

 almost equally fine view is obtainable, with the beginning of the 

 gorge below Chesthill. Of this also we took a view. 



We drove on all the way to Meggernie and to near the falls, 

 and passed the Bridge of Balgie. The valley now for the greater 

 part opens out again till the short gorge through which the rapids 

 of Meggernie flow is reached. But the scenery continues to reward 

 us, as seemingly endless successions of the great spurs of the main 

 ranges of the hills protrude towards the river-course, and present a 

 wonderful series of perspectives. We entered the fine avenue of 

 lime-trees which leads through the policies of Meggernie Castle, and 

 viewed the grand old mansion, dating back to about the year 1550. 

 The so-called falls form rather a series of foaming rapids, but none 

 the less do they deserve the praise bestowed upon them by Mr. Geen, 

 who describes them during high flood as the perfect impersonation 

 of grandeur, and well worth a long rough walk to see.^ 



Of the mountain-tops we saw but little, as mist hung heavily 

 over the summits of Meall Garve on the north, and its accompanying 

 satellite Meall Deraig, or the Eed Hill ; and of Ben Lawers on the 

 south we only caught one or two ghostly apparitions through the 

 gaps in the cloud-land. But the height and near proximity of the 

 wall-like superintending ranges on either side of the valley can — I 

 fancy — seldom permit of any extensive views beyond.^ 



But the half-shrouded projecting spurs far up the higher glen of 

 Lyon made wondrously fine perspectives, — some strange and fan- 

 tastic in their semi-obscured outlines, and we felt recompensed for 

 our endeavours nevertheless. 



There are three main exits from the glen, all being diverted not 

 far from one another. These are the driving road across to Killin, 

 past the lonely, high-lying Loch a Lairige in the summit pass ; the 



^ Mr. Philip Geen, author of What I have Seen while Fishing, and How I have 

 Caught my Fish (London, 1905), and angler, who usually visits Fortingall for the 

 spring fishing, 



2 Meall Garve bears another name as viewed from the Rannoch side, viz, 

 '•' Scoupa ' — where long " bleaching-cloths of deep snow " lie far into the summer, 

 and giant screes trundle their debris down the slopes. The poetic Gaelic name of 

 Scoupa means "The Whirling," and the burn and glen flowing to the north of it 

 in equal descriptive poesy is " The Glen of the Great Snow Drifts " (Alt ghleann a 

 cruach nan schneadaidh), or, " The Burn of the Glen of the Cup of Snow." 



