The Maid of the Loch has moved a step closer to sailing once more after its engines were started, nearly 40 years after its last commercial sailing in 1981.
It comes as part of a bid to restore the paddlesteamer so it can once again sale the shores.
In January, a bid to start the vessel ended with the winch failing with the boat breaking free from its restraints and ended up back in the water.
READ MORE: Watch: Maid of the Loch slides back into Loch Lomond
John Beveridge, chairman of the LLSC, said: "It has taken us 23 years to achieve this progress, the biggest boost of which has been the successful award of the Scottish Government's Regeneration Capital Grant Fund, and other funders including The Wolfson Foundation, The Robertson Trust, Hugh Fraser Foundation and Paddle Steamer Preservation Society.
"We are thrilled to fire up the engines for the first time in nearly four decades and to celebrate the completion of our wonderful £1.1m refit.
"We are still some way from achieving our aim of her sailing again but are more determined than ever to succeed.
"Our fundraising efforts will continue, and, in the meantime, visitors can come and see the Maid in her former glory and enjoy the spectacle of seeing the ship in steam once again."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel