Tarbet’s story, of course, started way before 9th June, with Willie Young of Argyll and Bute Council, the genial and highly experienced organiser of all things sporting. (Below right, taking to Councillor George Freeman of Lomond North.)

Amongst much else, Mr Young needed permission from the National Park to use the public leisure area on the shores of Loch Lomond at Tarbet as the venue for the gathering for the event.

As part of this, he needed to erect a marquee for the musical entertainment he had arranged. You’d be surprised how much tooth sucking the very notion of a marquee provoked.

Fortunately Mr Young has a straightforward take on life and all was well, with the marquee hosting a musical programme created by Wild Biscuit for Mr Young and the council.

The pipes and drums of MOVE, the Wild Biscuit show that wowed audiences at Celtic Connections and VisitScotland’s Expo earlier this year had the large crowd foot-tapping on grass that for Argyll, was surprisingly firm. Beacon Hill, a new acoustic group from Argyll, made their mark on the audience’s attention, as did Orla Ward, a young flute soloist.

A high point in the entertainment was the singing of the song commissioned from Wild Biscuit for the event.

This was The Flame, part of Creative Scotland’s Summer of Song initiative, sung by a choir of around thirty members drawn from from Lochgilphead High School Choir, Tarbert Academy Choir and Coisir Og Dhail Riata.

All the while this was happening, vehicles of all kinds were coming through Tarbet, clearly part of the Olympic Torch Relay challenge, heading north for points of appearance of the flame later in the day.

A singing bus off down the hill turned out to be one getting its message in early, with a reminder of the spiritual dimension to life; and later a woman connected with this bus was in the crowd in the park, with two quite beautiful gauze flags.

What must have been an entire brigade of council staff – many from the Riverside in Dunoon, led by David Campbell, acted as security staff and stewarded the entire operation on the day.

They were unfailingly helpful, efficient, flexible and good humoured. They did Argyll proud and Willie Young could not be more delighted.

The crowd built and built. In the end there wasn’t an inch of space in Tarbet for another car. Residents must have felt besieged but largely accepted it in the spirit of a once-in-a-lifetime event. The normally empty and tranquil Ballyhennan Crescent – where Strathclyde Police hide to catch the unwary accelerating for the hill out of the 30 mph limit (a dirty little trick – said sorely for obvious reasons) – looked like the fringes of the London Congestion Zone.

Back in the village, the crowd waited and wondered when.

Every passing Strathclkyde police outrider got a rolling cheer and replied with cheerful appreciative horn-toots.

Down the road at Arrochar Primary School, parents and children got geared up to greet the Olympic Flame with the most spectacular torches they had made themselves.

The school, with its beautiful garden, pirate ship and wooded grounds on the loch shore is a delight to begin with. Add a cluster of flares of these torches and the scene on Saturday morning was sheer carnival.

We’d been expecting the Coca Cola bus – flying the flag of a key sponsor. They took us by surprise.

There were three Coca Cocla vehicles, each different from the last, each seemingly custom built for the Torch Relay.

Each a visual fun machine.

For us, the stars of the truckfest were those that signalled just how well the entire nationwide Torch Relay is organised.

About half an hour before the flame arrived, two muscle-bound he-trucks shouldered their gaudy way into Tarbet.

It didn’t occur to us that these were anything to do with the event – until they eased in to the verge at the bottom of the hill out of the village and parked up close, lights flashing. These are security hunks of a different kind. If anything gets in the way of the convoy or if any vehicle in the convoy itself breaks down, these toughies will shift it. Talk about a self-contained operation. Respect.

Footsoldiers in the cheerleading brigade came down the road in fine fettle.

As the vehicles got bolder, noisier and more in your face, the crowd began to get even livelier, sensing the imminent arrival of the big moment.

Mercedes satellite transmission vans came through together – to Oohs and Aahs.

Expectation mounted.

A Metropolitan Police car seemed out of place – but was absolutely in its place. The Met are responsible for the security of the flame countrywide.

Everybody started to shuffle into line, to be ready, to see.

There was cheering from up on the A82. It was all happening.

A Torch Relay BMW came through followed by a London 2012 coach.

And there was Argyll’s Myles Clark from Ardfern, in a rhythmic, controlled run down the road with the Olympic Torch – which has been bought for him. Flanked by members of the running team, he swept past the Tarbet Hotel and down to the changeover point where he lit the flame of the next Torchbearer, Billy McPate from Coatbridge, who ran it past Arrochar school.

This photograph of  Myles was taken by Willie Young and it seems the right note to end on – making a connection between the two men who marked this particular event as a major achievement for Argyll.

The entertainment carried on. Many stayed on. Some, like us, slipped away satisfied. Job done – well done.

The photographs above are For Argyll’s, with the exception of the first and last ones, of Myles Clark carrying the Olympic Flame into Tarbet and then passing the flame to the next Torchbearer. These two photographs, appropriately topping and tailing this account, are by Willie Young of Argyll and Bute Council, the event organiser.