Glenlomond Cottage

Glenlomond Cottage was the family home of the Stewart family for many years. James and Isabel Stewart lived there. The photo on the right shows them in front of the cottage with their little dog Bruce. I probably taken during the First World War when ther grandson Alec Stewart visited then while recovering from war injuries.

In an undated letter to his niece, Betty Ward, Alec recalls visiting the cottage. He also includes a little pen sketch of the location. To quote from his letter:

Sometimes I went to Grandfather Stewart's at Glen Lomond Cottage. You take the train from Edinburgh on the North British railway. Cross the Forth Bridge and get off at Mawcarse Junction. The road leads from the station up the hill to the right of the railway going from Edinburgh. You go on until you strike the road turning right that leads to Kinross and the cottage was on the corner. You could see Loch Leven from their front door with the island and castle in the centre of it where Mary Stuart Queen of Scots was imprisoned. A loan (lane) went past the cottage up to the Lomand hills and all around were fine bees and heather and blae berries. They were low bushes covered with blue berries which we picked for Grannie to make jam with and we ate as many as we liked and got coloured hands and faces bright blue off the berries which were about as big as your thumbnail.

Another member of the Stewart clan, Isa Hopper, also wrote to Betty with information about the cottage. She said that family back in Scotland had told her that nobody lived in the cottage after the old couple died and at that is was now no more than a pile of rubble.

With Alec's description and little mud map, I had a go at finding the location using Google maps. It turned into quite a detective tale! Alec's map was a little distorted, and not entirely accurate. It was difficult to make out some of the words as well. The main clues were:

• • The cottage was on the road from Mawcarse Junction towards Kinneesswood, on the left hand side of the road.

  • It was at an intersection, with a road to Kinross and a lane towards the Lomond Hills.

  • The cottage had a view of the Loch and the ruined castle where Mary Queen of Scots had been imprisoned.

James had been a railway 'surface man', and it is likely that the cottage was a railway cottage. Apparently many railway cottages were left vacant and were allowed to fall down!

The map below shows the key points that led me to where I think the cottage is. The map should be interactive and you can move around, zoom and switch to satellite view if you wish. If you would prefer to work with a full size view of the map, try this link. If you go right down to street view, you can make out the ruins of the cottage on the corner!