A novel role for Scotland’s oldest steamship

13 May 2026

Loch Katrine has supplied Glasgow’s drinking water since 1859; now an historic pleasure cruiser is gathering real-time data to monitor the quality of that supply, reports Scottish Water specialist graduate Emily Bremner

Steamship Sir Walter Scott is no mere pleasure cruiser. Not anymore, that is. Built on Glasgow’s River Clyde in 1899, and in operation on nearby Loch Katrine since 1900, the historic vessel last year became part of a state-of-the-art water quality monitoring programme run by the University of Stirling (UoS) and Scottish Water. Every day during the March-October tourist season, sensors on the bow of Scotland’s oldest steamship transmit surface water data relating to sediment levels back to the laboratory of Professor Andrew Tyler, director of Scotland's International Environment Centre at the UoS.

As chair of Scotland’s Hydro Nation, an organisation bringing together experts across the country to drive innovation in sustainable water management, Tyler is leading on the Forth Environmental Resilience Array (Forth-ERA), a project deploying 1,000 sensors across the Firth of Forth’s entire catchment to monitor water quality and the impacts of climate change.

Credit: Mark Ferguson, University of Stirling

While Steamship Sir Walter Scott’s skipper makes a brief mention of this pioneering research during ordinary pleasure cruises, it is likely that most tourists are more interested in the view above the water than what’s happening below its surface. Not so for attendees of two special scenic trips due to take place this October that will focus on how Forth-ERA is transforming Scotland’s ability to monitor and respond to changes in the environment. Part of the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 2026, a biennial conference being held in the UK for the first time, the tours will explore Hydro Nation’s sensors in the context of land management projects in the surrounding Trossachs Forrest.

Data on surface water from Loch Katrine is combined with satellite data, data on peatlands, tree coverage and air quality, to present a rich picture of the region’s environmental health. Hydro Nation is currently piloting these sensor and satellite technologies elsewhere, including in Asia’s Mekong Delta, with a view to making them commercially available for businesses, policymakers and environmental organisations wishing to make informed, climate-based investment decisions.

Looking back to look forwards

The IWA Congress tours will also explore the history of Loch Katrine and its fascinating relationship with Glasgow’s water infrastructure. Rapid population growth in the 1840s, alongside major cholera outbreaks in 1832 and 1848–49, exposed serious failings in Glasgow’s water supply and sanitation systems. At the time, most of Glasgow’s drinking water came by way of an 1807 scheme that used the River Clyde as its source. The Glasgow Corporation tasked renowned civil engineer John Frederick Bateman, best known at the time for his work on Manchester’s water supply infrastructure, with finding a solution.

Bateman identified 13km-long Loch Katrine as the most suitable source for supplying abundant, reliable freshwater to the city. The project was a massive undertaking, with 3,000-5,000 workers building the scheme, which included a 43km-long aqueduct to deliver clean, gravity-fed water from the Trossachs to water treatment works in the city.

Loch Katrine’s new waterworks was officially opened by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1859. Queen Victoria was captivated by the beauty of the loch and surrounding Trossachs Forest, beauty which had inspired many famous writers, poets and artists. The loch was already a tourist destination by the end of the 18th century, the local landowner having created a lakeside access road and installed wicker shelters for rainy days. The Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott travelled in the Trossachs in this period; his 1810 poem “The Lady of the Lake” was set around Loch Katrine and led to a significant increase in visitors to the area.

Despite initial apprehension around costs and the ambitious scale of the Loch Katrine aqueduct and Glasgow waterworks, Bateman’s scheme was ultimately a success, enabling the city to begin its transition to the safe, modern metropolis we know today. But the engineer’s legacy is more than just the pipes, tunnels and holding reservoirs that make up Glasgow’s contemporary water supply infrastructure – it’s the very notion of science rising to the challenge of a grave societal danger. In Bateman’s day, that danger was cholera; today, it’s the climate and biodiversity crisis.

It’s still very early days for the water quality monitoring taking place at Loch Katrine as part of the Forth Environmental Resilience Array and any solutions that come from it may be years in the making – but now, as in the past, progress begins with understanding the scale and nature of the problem.

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The IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 2026, which will include technical site visits such as Loch Katrine aboard Steamship Sir Walter Scott, takes place at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) in Glasgow from 04 - 08 October 2026. Early bird tickets are available through 30 June 2026.

Book your ticket at worldwatercongress.org/registration to gain access to the entire conference programme, or register online for free to access the exhibition space, including CIWEM’s presence within the UK Pavilion.

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Emily Bremner is a specialist graduate at Scottish Water