Stag knights return to Walter Scott's famous hills

• The Trossachs will echo to the sound of 1,000 runners and cyclists, all celebrating Sir Walter Scott

Sports enthusiasts and families will follow the route of "The Chase" – a hunt described in detail at the beginning of Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake.

The main event will involve a 40-mile running and cycling duathlon, and there will be a "Wee Chase", including a treasure hunt, aimed at families.

The duathlon will follow the hunt route in the poem, starting at Callander and heading to the banks of Loch Katrine. Along the way will be a series of surprise challenges linked to themes in the poem, before the event ends in Callander with a medieval-style party.

Perfect Motion Sports Marketing, organising the event on behalf of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority, hopes it will attract up to 1,000 participants, from serious sports enthusiasts to people out for a bit of fun by donning medieval-style dress.

Entrants will pay 40 for the duathlon and 20 per family for the Wee Chase, both to be held on 25 September.

Historians believe the magical language in Scott's poem, published in 1810, changed how the public viewed some of Scotland's wildest landscapes. It has been credited with leading to Scotland's first tourism boom.

Fiona Logan, the national park's chief executive, said it was important to remember the huge role the author had played. "In many ways, Sir Walter Scott is an unsung hero of Scotland," she said. "He was a true pioneer of Scottish tourism and deserves his rightful place in the history books."

The year after the poem was published, the number of carriages passing Loch Katrine rose to 279, compared with 48 the year before, as people rushed to visit the landscape described by Scott. Until this point, the country had been thought by those in England and beyond to be barbaric, barren and inhospitable.

Scott's 80-page epic poem is set in 1530, at the time of King James V. It opens with the king disguised as a wandering knight and hunting a stag in the Trossachs hills.

Eventually, the stag escapes, and the king is given shelter for the night by a wild highland chieftain on an island in Loch Katrine, where he falls in love with Ellen, the beautiful daughter of Black Douglas, from the powerful Clan Douglas.

The Chase is one of a series of activities being organised to celebrate the anniversary of The Lady of the Lake.

There will also be a concert, the creation of a permanent art and literary trail around Loch Katrine, cruises, exhibitions and guided walks.

Bruce Crawford, the minister for parliamentary business, said: "Many people underestimate how much Sir Walter Scott did for Scotland and we want to shout about his achievements.

"Everyone should know what he did for tourism, Scotland's image and our heritage, as well as his wonderful novels and poems."

• To find out more about the programme of events, called ScottsLand, visit www.scottsland.co.uk

From 'The Chase'

The stag at eve had drunk his fill,

Where danced the moon on Monan's rill,

And deep his midnight lair had made

In lone Glenartney's hazel shade;

But when the sun his beacon red

Had kindled on Benvoirlich's head,

The deep-mouthed bloodhound's heavy bay

Resounded up the rocky way,

And faint, from farther distance borne,

Were heard the clanging hoof and horn.

As Chief, who hears his warder call,

'To arms! the foemen storm the wall,'

The antlered monarch of the waste

Sprung from his heathery couch in haste.

But ere his fleet career he took,

The dew-drops from his flanks he shook;

Like crested leader proud and high

Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky;

A moment gazed adown the dale,

A moment snuffed the tainted gale,

A moment listened to the cry,

That thickened as the chase drew nigh;

Then, as the headmost foes appeared,

With one brave bound the copse he cleared,

And, stretching forward free and far,

Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var.

Yelled on the view the opening pack;

Rock, glen, and cavern paid them back;

To many a mingled sound at once

The awakened mountain gave response.

A hundred dogs bayed deep and strong,

Clattered a hundred steeds along,

Their peal the merry horns rung out,

A hundred voices joined the shout;

With hark and whoop and wild halloo,

No rest Benvoirlich's echoes knew.

Far from the tumult fled the roe,

Close in her covert cowered the doe,

The falcon, from her cairn on high,

Cast on the rout a wondering eye,

Till far beyond her piercing ken

The hurricane had swept the glen.

Faint, and more faint, its failing din

Returned from cavern, cliff, and linn,

And silence settled, wide and still,

On the lone wood and mighty hill.

Less loud the sounds of sylvan war

Disturbed the heights of Uam-Var,

And roused the cavern where, 'tis told,

A giant made his den of old;

For ere that steep ascent was won,

High in his pathway hung the sun,

And many a gallant, stayed perforce,

Was fain to breathe his faltering horse,

And of the trackers of the deer

Scarce half the lessening pack was near;

So shrewdly on the mountain-side

Had the bold burst their mettle tried.