Visiting Loch Leven
We started our walk at Loch Leven from Kirkgate Park, which is accessed via a rather narrow road off Kinross’s main street, although once you’ve found it you do rather wonder how it could have escaped your notice before, or indeed why no one has ever told you about the park. Picture a wide green, with picnic benches dotted about, a large children’s playground, and best of all, Loch Leven stretching out into the distance, complete with sandy beach.
On the other side of this family, pet, and retiree heaven is Kinross House, which is quite a significant building, being Scotland’s first neoclassical Palladian mansion, and built by famous architect Sir William Bruce. Glimpses of the house can be seen through a couple of large gates at intervals along the path, and it is indeed an elegant and pleasingly symmetrical building, and no surprise that it is considered one of his most significant works.
Both Kinross House and gardens were designed with the view of Lochleven Castle firmly in mind. But before we get where we can see the castle, there’s a watchtower and mausoleum to walk around, complete with a graveyard, with stones ancient enough to fascinate and inform. Although it’s not possible to go in the watchtower, I do take a moment to go as far as I can up the steps, just to feel the shallow patches in the centre where centuries of feet have trodden. I always find the knowledge that I’m standing in the same spot so many in the past quite enthralling.
Not far past the watchtower we come to the front of Kinross House, which as mentioned earlier can be seen though some large iron gates, and there too is our view of Lochleven Castle, dominating the originally named Castle Island. In summer it’s possible to take a trip over, but for now we are content to have it make up part of a truly beautiful scene.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Lochleven Castle’s main claim to fame is that it imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots between 1567 and her escape in 1568. The metal railing around the castle viewpoint, upon which is etched all sorts of interesting facts about what we’re looking at, tantalisingly adds that the key that freed her was supposedly dropped into the loch on her way to shore. Mary had previously stayed in the castle as a guest, but she wasn’t the only famous person in history to have done so—Robert the Bruce also visited in the early 1300s.
Castle Island isn’t the only island of historical interest on Loch Leven, the nearby St Serf’s Island is in many ways perhaps even more significant, since it was here a group of monks 600 years ago wrote The Orygynale Cronykil—a history of Scotland.
After leaving the castle viewpoint, we continue along the path for a little while, but a hedge obscures our view of the loch, and we quite quickly decide to turn around and walk back toward our car along the shore. Many of the birds which the area is home to had now migrated for the winter, but a family of swans was obliging enough to pose for us, and we also spotted several herons and some pink-footed geese.
There was definitely something particularly captivating about the colour combination of the light gold reeds and deep blue loch on this sunny winter day. We left feeling that, if you want an area that’s full of both beauty and interest, it’s hard to beat this little stretch of Kinross.
