An Tigh Mor

Today's the day ................... for the history of The Big House

This is where we are staying at present - An Tigh Mor - which is gaelic for The Big House. It is an impressively turreted, grey slate-roofed, thick stone-walled, four-storey building that was built in 1852 as the Trossachs Hotel.

It was built specifically to cater for the demand for Scottish holidays resulting from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's choice of Balmoral on Royal Deeside as their annual summer holiday hideaway. All of a sudden, holidaying in Scotland was very much the 'in' thing to do. It also coincided with the construction of the first railways which made the area of the Trossachs very accessible to the English upper and middle classes.

With its sweeping drive and almost as vast interior with its ballroom, dining room and winter gardens conservatory, the new Trossachs Hotel was offered as the ideal place to stay. Its lavishly printed and worded brochure promised guests that its fleet of horse-drawn brakes and charabancs would transport them daily to connect with the new-fangled paddle steamers on Loch Katrine and Loch Lomond.

It's been a while since there were any charabancs around but it's still a wonderful place to stay ......................