Any photographer who has visited the eastern shore of Loch Lomond in the Trossachs has taken a shot of this tree sitting all by its lonesome. It’s an obvious shot that cries out to virtually everyone who wields a camera. The unfortunate consequence is that this scene has become a bit of a cliché. Just go to google images and do a search for “milarrochy bay tree” and you’ll see what I mean. That’s one of the hazards of the craft, I guess.
Speaking of clichés… We’ve all heard the song. I’m sure you’ve heard it. The chorus goes like this:
O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road, And I'll be in Scotland a'fore ye, But me and my true love will never meet again, On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
Thanks to that song, Loch Lomond is one of the most famous lakes in the world. And yet, to stand on its banks and gaze across the water is something of a disappointment. What can I say? I come from a place that has shoreline on four of the Great Lakes, including Superior which, according to my calculations, has a surface area that is 1,156 times the surface area of the fabled Loch.
The closest we’ve got to “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond” is Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. With all due respect to Mr. Lightfoot, if I want a song to lift my spirits, I’d sooner take the high road.
