Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Glenfalloch

Glenfalloch (Gael. gleann-falaich, 'valley of concealment'), a glen of Killin parish, Perthshire, and Arrochar parish, Dumbartonshire. It is traversed by the Falloch which, rising on Ben-A-Chroin at an altitude of 2600 feet, winds 11 ¾ miles north-by-westward and south-south-westward, till it falls into the head of Loch Lomond (23 feet) at Ardlui. Glenfalloch House, near the stream's right bank, 2 1/8 miles N of Ardlui and 7 SW of Crianlarich station, belongs to the Earl of Breadalbane; ¼ mile lower down is Inverarnan Hotel. On 12 Sept. 1803, Wordsworth and his sister, having walked up Loch Lomond from Inversnaid to Ardlui, thence crossed over the hills into Glengyle; and Dorothy writes in her Journal - 'It is one of those moments which I shall not easily forget, when at that point from which a step or two would have carried us out of sight of the green fields of Glenfalloch, being at a great height on the mountain, we sate down, and heard, as if from the heart of the earth, the sound of torrents ascending out of the long hollow glen. To the eye all was motionless, a perfect stillness. The noise of waters did not appear to come this way or that, from any particular quarter: it was everywhere, almost, one might say, as if "exhaled'' through the whole surface of the green earth. Glenfalloch, Coleridge has since told me, signifies the Hidden Vale; but William says, if we were to name it from our recollections of that time, we should call it the Vale of Awful Sound.'-Ord. Sur., shs. 46, 38, 1872-71.


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a glen"   (ADL Feature Type: "valleys")
Administrative units: Dunbartonshire ScoCnty       Perthshire ScoCnty
Place names: GLEANN FALAICH     |     GLENFALLOCH

Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.