How could they be anything other than inspired by what they saw? Early travel writers, a composer, several poets and famous writers all came this way - and even a minister who conversed with fairies!

John Carswell (d.1572)
John Carswell was the Bishop of Argyll and is remembered for his translation of John Knox’s ‘Liturgy’ (ie a prayer-book) into Gaelic, making it the very first book ever printed in Scottish Gaelic. Carswell is associated with his home at Carnasserie Castle a 16th-century towerhouse on a hill above the Kilmartin valley, just by the main road. Though ruinous, the castle is in the care of Historic Scotland.

Rev Robert Kirk (1641-1692)
The Rev Robert Kirk was a brilliant scholar though a man of strange habits! While minister of the church at Aberfoyle, he took to wandering about the nearby Doon Hill late at night, sometimes lying down with his ear to the ground and murmuring as if in conversation. He then wrote a book called 'The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies' at a time when the church (unsurprisingly) frowned on such dabblings. Then, in 1692, he was found dead in his nightshirt on the hill. Some say he was trapped in Fairyland. There’s a signposted trail on the Doon Hill today. But watch out for the tall pine on top. Rumour is that it’s the minister, changed by the little folk.

Thomas Pennant (1726-1798)
Born in Flintshire, the naturalist, scientist and traveller Thomas Pennant wrote of his Scottish travels at a time when the country was becoming more accessible to tourists. In his second work as a result of his travels, called A Tour of Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 he set off by sea from Helensburgh, investigated Bute via the Kyles of Bute, then crossed the Kintyre peninsula on horseback and rejoined ship at Gigha. He then investigated Jura, Islay and Iona on his way north. Tide conditions prevented him from visiting another small island which looked interesting. Consequently, he missed a real ‘scoop’. The island was Staffa, now famous for the rock formations of ‘Fingal’s Cave’. It was discovered only a month later in August 1772 by the young Joseph Banks (see below). Pennant’s tour also became the first printed history of the Hebrides, helping create the atmosphere of fascination and romance which still draws visitors to them today.

Sir Joseph Banks (1744-1820)
Sir Joseph Banks is famous for his round-the-world voyage with Captain Cook (1768-71). However, the next year, this wealthy young man, with his reputation already made as an explorer, was en route to Iceland when his party called into Mull. There he learned about a marvellous island close by. He sailed out to it – and ‘discovered’ (and later publicised) Staffa. He named its most famous rock formation Fingal’s Cave. This was a reference to the then fashionable Macpherson’s Ossian, the tale of the great deeds of the Gaelic hero Fingal, a bestselling epic poem which was later to be proved an embarrassing forgery! Fingal’s Cave went on to become a pilgrimage for the Romantics: William Wordsworth, John Keats, Sir Walter Scott, JMW Turner, Felix Mendelssohn (see Born, Bred & Local Links) and even Queen Victoria sailed out to see the rocks. The island is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland today.

Robert Burns (1759-1796)
Though strongly associated with Ayrshire as the area of his birth, Burns travelled round much of Scotland. For example, on a notable Highland tour in 1787 he wrote ‘I have lately been rambling over by Dumbarton and Inveraray, and running a drunken race on the side of Loch Lomond with wild Highlandman….’ A visit to the battlefield at Bannockburn inspired the words for the patriotic song ‘Scots Wha Hae’ using an already existing old tune ‘Hey Tuttie Taitie’. Overlooking Dunoon is a memorial to Burns complicated love-life: the statue of Highland Mary, Mary Campbell, with whom Burns intended to emigrate. She died in October 1786 and has been a source for romantic speculation ever since.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
William Wordsworth, accompanied by his sister Dorothy, and by another Romantic Poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, visited Loch Katrine (and many other places besides) in 1803, the first of three trips to Scotland. Poems inspired by the visit include: 'To a Highland Girl' (at Inversnaid); 'Stepping Westward' (along Loch Katrine); 'The Solitary Reaper' (at Balquhidder); 'Rob Roy's Grave'. (This poem was written following a visit to Clan Gregor graves by the shores of Loch Katrine at Portnellan. Wordsworth thought Rob Roy was buried here, but his grave is actually at Balquhidder.)

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
Scott promoted a new image of Scotland as a place full of Highland wildness and the vanished romance of the clans. He put the Trossachs firmly on the visitor map after the publication of the verse-narrative The Lady of the Lake in 1810, filling the story with identifiable features in the Trossachs area -hills like Ben Ledi and Ben Venue, and features around Loch Katrine. Visitors can still see Ellen's Isle and the site of now covered over Silver Strand. Some places mentioned in the later Rob Roy (1817) can be seen from the 'Sir Walter Scott' a steam-powered vessel which has sailed on Loch Katrine since 1902. These include Coire na Uriusgean, 'the goblins' cave' near where Rob Roy's band hid cattle, and Glengyle, just visible at the far west end, Rob's birthplace.

Jules Verne (1828-1905)
French novelist Jules Verne, regarded by many as the pioneer of modern science fiction, visited the Trossachs and Loch Lomond in 1859, recording his impressions of the landscapes of these areas in a diary. He later called upon these reflections when writing The Underground City, which has been described as one of the authors most challenging works. The novel – part romance and part supernatural thriller - is set in the fictional community of the New Aberfoyle mine located beneath Loch Katrine. In place of the steamboat SS Rob Roy which Verne describes in The Underground City, today’s visitors can set sail on the SS Sir Walter Scott, and enjoy a scenic cruise amidst some of Scotland’s most spectacular and breathtaking – and of course, inspirational – scenery!

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89)
Gerard Manley Hopkins, a brilliant scholar, became a priest and burned all his early poems. He worked in several parts of the country, including Glasgow in 1881. It was during this time he is likely to have travelled by Loch Lomond and seen the foaming burn which tumbles steeply down from the ‘hanging valley’ of Glen Arklet to reach Loch Lomond at Inversnaid, which is the name given to his famous poem containing the well-known lines ‘What would the world be, once bereft / Of wet and of wildness ? / Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet ;/ Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.’

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94)
This Scottish author from a famous family of engineers was a frequent visitor to Bridge of Allan near Stirling from early childhood until he was a young man. Bridge of Allan at that time was a spa resort. Stevenson made frequent excursions in the area and is especially associated with a cave (originally a mine adit or unfinished bore) by the Allan Water. It is said that this became Ben Gunn’s cave in Treasure Island. Some commentators say that features on the map in this story can be related to features in the Carse of Stirling. Similarly, an island by the confluence of the Rivers Allan and Forth puts in an appearance in Kidnapped.

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936)
Scholar, travel writer and politician RB Cunninghame Graham inherited his father’s estate at Gartmore in the Trossachs. This exotic well-travelled character, with connections to the Spanish aristocracy through his mother and also connections with the Stuart monarchs of Scotland earned him the title of ‘the uncrowned king of Scotland’. He was in turn first President of the Scottish Labour Party and later held the same title with the newly-founded Scottish National Party. A cairn to commemorate him was erected in 1937 at Castlehill, Dumbarton and moved to Gartmore in 1981.

Neil Munro (1863-1930)
Munro was the illegitimate son of a kitchen maid and some said his father was a prominent member of an Argyll aristocratic family. After he left Inveraray School at thirteen he worked in the office of the Sheriff-Clerk of Argyll, before leaving the Highlands to pursue a career in journalism in 1881. Short stories and novels followed on, many exploring the themes of change within the Highlands. He became an authoritative figure and important critic in Scottish literary life. He used the pen-name Hugh Foulis when writing his lighter work which included his creation Para Handy, the west-coast puffer skipper whose adventures were brought to a wider audience through television. Munro is buried in Kilmalieu Cemetery, Inveraray and a monument to his memory was erected in Glen Aray in 1935.

A J Cronin (1896-1981)
AJ Cronin was born in Cardross in humble circumstances but rose to become a doctor, then a successful novelist whose works were also made into popular films – for example, The Stars Look Down in its film version starred Michael Redgrave and is generally thought to be the first ever big-budget British-made film with social relevance and comment. The Keys to the Kingdom (1941) was filmed in Hollywood and starred Gregory Peck. Cronin is also associated with the British television series Dr Finlay's Casebook (1959-66, new adaptation 1993) which was based on his stories and filmed in Callander. The doctors’ residence, Arden House, can still be identified. In the 1960s it was one of the most popular series on British television.

George Orwell (1903-50)
George Orwell visited Jura in 1945, following a recommendation by a local estate owner. Though a busy journalist, he wanted to 'get-away-from-it-all' and live in a remote place in order to dedicate himself to the book he had to write. The next year he came to live at Barnhil, a house at the north end of the island which is still remote today and accessible only by a rough track. The book he wrote became his famous Nineteen Eighty-Four with its message of state control even of thought processes - to which the adjective 'Orwellian' now refers.

Iain Crichton Smith (Iain MacGhobhainn) (1928-1998)
The poet, novelist and teacher, Iain Crichton Smith, taught at Dumbarton and Oban until 1977. Smith was noted for his prolific output, both in his native Gaelic and in English, which often explored themes of island culture and religion.