Vandals cause sightseeing curb at famous salmon leap

and break-ins at the property of the owner.

Visitors to the Pots, a famous salmon leap, are faced with printed

notices on the road gate saying the private road has been closed at

weekends. A second sign bans angling, also at weekends, other than by

prior arrangement.

The Pots, or Loup, of Gartness, about two miles from Drymen, commands

a special place in the affections of thousands of families from Glasgow

and Stirlingshire. For generations it has attracted visitors, especially

during periods of summer rain.

The secret is that every Loch Lomond salmon and sea trout which runs

the River Endrick, the loch's main spawning tributary, must ascent the

Loup. When the river is in spate, the spectacle can attract hundreds.

Salmon and sea trout have also traditionally congregated in the pools

immediately below the fall or have rested in those upstream attracting

anglers on day permits sold by the Paterson family, in the garden of

whose former mill home the waterfall lies.

The family have decided to close off the Pots more in sorrow than in

anger, having found that one of the groups, either sightseers or

anglers, contained opportunist housebreakers. There has also been damage

to property and masses of litter.

Mr David Paterson, who works with computers at Paisley University,

said the Paul Young angling programme had filmed at the Pots, although

the family had not been asked, and the normal steady flow of visitors

turned into a flood.

''We are desperate not to exclude people,'' he said, but added there

was ''an element who misbehave and are noisy, destructive and

aggressive. As a last resort we have had to call the police to deal with

them.

At Gartness yesterday the salmon and sea trout were tilting at the

falls, a small knot of anglers were worming downstream and a steady

influx of well-behaved visitors trooped down the steps to watch the

fish. Regretably, says Mr Paterson, they should now stay away at

weekends.