Welcome to Giro Bay: fed-up rangers rubbish Loch Lomond's litter louts

Published on Wednesday 9 March 2011 19:03

Rangers safeguarding one of Scotland's most famous beauty spots have vented their frustration with littering visitors - through place names on a new map.

Bosses at Loch Lomond National Park said yesterday they had pulped 3,000 copies of a new navigational chart after residents spotted that an island inlet on the loch was renamed "Giro Bay".

Several other places were also named after the national park's staff and others who worked on the map.

The new chart was rolled out in February to replace one drawn up in 1861, after new research on the loch's geological features.

But it has now been withdrawn and will be reprinted, after complaints from local residents about the confusing new place names.

Part of Inchmoan island, well known for its long sandy beaches, was renamed "Giro Bay" in an "error of judgment", a national park spokesman said.

"It's a colloquialism that we understood was in regular usage, and was subsequently included erroneously," he said. "It obviously should not have appeared."

Park rangers have complained publicly about the piles of rubbish discarded on Inchmoan, from wine bottles to burned-out barbecues, leaving them with the "soul-destroying" job of picking up after litterers. Scenic ruins were used as toilets, it was said.

Other controversial names on the map included Chimmo Rocks, Cameron's Shallows, Archibald's Abyss, Jessie's Shallow and Stevenson's Bank. All have now been withdrawn.

Ernie East, of the Loch Lomond Association, who has kept a boat on the loch for 40 years, said people were "very annoyed" by the new names. "Nobody's ever heard of them," she said.

Chimmo Rocks was the name given for Aber Rocks, towards the southern end of Loch Lomond. It was taken from the name of a cartographer who worked on the original mapping of the loch in 1861.

Archibald's Abyss, one of the deepest parts of Loch Lomond, was named after ranger manager Graeme Archibald. Cameron's Shallows were named after his colleague David Cameron, a park spokesman confirmed. The two men had worked on the chart for about four years.

It is common practice among map-makers to name places after cartographers or others who have explored a territory. Otter Spit, for example, on the new map, was named after Captain Otter, who commanded the boat used in the 1861 survey of the loch.But Jessie's Shallow was named after the daughter of an employee with the British Geological Survey (BGS), which conducted the new survey of the freshwater loch using sonar equipment, while Stevenson's Bank was named after another BGS staff member.

"It's a cartography tradition to include references like that, you see them on most maps, but on this occasion it was probably done with too much enthusiasm, so we have thought it more appropriate that these were removed," the spokesman said.