Image: Kilchurn Castle
a Refreshing Find If you’re looking to escape this summer, then seek out Loch Awe. Whether you’re local and using your home as a base or you’ve never been before - there’s so much to discover.
Today, the area is going through a tourism renaissance and encouraging travellers who tend to stick to the main road and head for nearby Oban and Inveraray - to consider the area as a destination worth visiting.
16 www.wildaboutargyll.co.uk/destinations/loch-awe
Load up your bike, pack up your tent, dig out your wet suit, treat yourself to that new inflatable paddleboard… and get ready to start making memories.
Image: St Conan's Kirk
The Loch Awe railway hotel was in fact built to accommodate the tourist boom at the time, with the West Highland railway line welcoming visitors since the late 1900s when a saloon steamer plied the loch and the hotel welcomed many famous and titled guests.
The A85 and Oban to Glasgow railway cut along the top of the loch, but the rest is surrounded by single track roads, creating a continuous journey around its shores. With endless views, it truly is the perfect setting for adventure enthusiasts, nature lovers or those looking for peace and tranquillity to explore on foot or by bike. And if you have your own kit, you can easily enjoy a perfect break without the need to overly plan your daily activities. From this summer ‘your carriage awaits’, with the UK’s first active travel carriage coming into operation twice daily on the Oban line. This reinvigorates the area’s rich railway heritage together with Dalmally station that is now an artistic hub with accommodation.
Image: Ben Cruachan
Nestled in the heart of beautiful Argyll and only a two-hour journey by car or rail from Glasgow, Loch Awe is Scotland’s longest freshwater loch spanning 41km of unspoilt, rugged and magical beauty. Characterised by heavily wooded hillsides, exposed hill tops, rocky shores, uninhabited islands, ruined castles and a handful of charming villages dotted around its shores, it is steeped in history and culture and was once regarded as a Victorian hot-spot due to the gentry and number of mansions built in the area.
