Exploring The Best Things To Do At Loch Fyne

Scotland is blessed with many incredible lochs, but it’s rare to see more than a tiny part of them. When most people visit Loch Fyne, all they see is Inveraray and then they’re off again. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a great place to start but trust me, there are many more things to do at Loch Fyne!

Molly the Labrador and I decided to make the journey all the way around the loch, keeping our eyes open for any interesting bits and pieces. We weren’t disappointed at all, apart from the fact that it took us so long to do it!

Here is your complete guide to exploring all the best things to do at Loch Fyne!

If this trip to sounds like something you’d like to do with an experienced guide, then send me a message now about booking a Scotland’s Stories tour!

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Where Is Loch Fyne?

You’ll find Loch Fyne on Scotland’s west coast, snaking inland from the Firth of Clyde. It’s 65km long and eventually leads to both the Isle of Bute and the Isle of Arran. Across the hills to the west you’ll find the incredible Loch Awe running almost perfectly parallel. Loch Fyne might be easily accessed from the sea, but it’s a little more difficult by road.

With towering mountains to the north and east, Loch Fyne has only one main road in. The A83 is famously precarious and in the past has been regularly cut off at the Rest & Be Thankful pass by landslides! Fortunately, once you do arrive you’ll find plenty of things to do at Loch Fyne to make the journey worth it.

Visit The Duke of Argyll At Inveraray Castle

There are few better places to start your journey around Loch Fyne than at Inveraray Castle. This is still home to the Duke of Argyll,Chief of Clan Campbell, so you can’t access the entire building or visit all year round. It’s even reasonably new in terms of Scottish castles, only built around 250 years ago.

Inside you’ll find the decadently decorated state rooms, complete with the expensive furnishings you would expect from a Duke. However, it’s the Armoury Hall that takes the breath away, lined with weaponry and boasting the highest ceiling in Scotland!

Those muskets you can see were used by the Argyll regiments at the Battle of Culloden. A little less bloody are items once belonging to Rob Roy Macgregor who worked closely with the Campbells.

Upstairs, there’s one space you’ll want to watch out for – The MacArthur Room. Back in 1644, the old Inveraray Castle was attacked by the Marquis of Montrose and his royalist forces. Of the many servants left to defend themselves was a young Irish harpist.

The Irish contingent of Montrose’s army murdered the boy and left his dismembered body on the bed. When the Campbells returned, faint, ghostly harp music could often be found in the room. Moving to the new castle made no difference since they brought that impressive bed with them, placing it in this room.

The room has a strange feeling and furniture has been known to move around of its own accord. The ghost isn’t violent, but has become a portent of death for the Campbells, along with a phantom galley ship that sails along Loch Fyne. When a member of the family is about to pass away, harp music can be heard floating along the corridors of Inveraray Castle.

Hike Dùn na Cuaiche

If you’re looking to stretch you legs after the long drive to Loch Fyne then you might have spotted the wee hill above Inveraray Castle. That’s Dùn na Cuaiche and the little tower on it is an 18th century folly although it gets called a watchtower. No doubt the Campbells did need to watch their back after their role in the Jacobite Risings…

It’s a short walk of a couple hours and although a little steep, it’s nowhere near a Munro! The walk starts through beautiful woodland and once you arrive, the views are spectacular. Smart move not to build the tower at the top of the hill, but at the spot where it can be seen best from around Loch Fyne.

Visit Inveraray Town

When you visit Inveraray Town, you can clearly tell it’s a planned settlement. With its whitewashed walls and a rigid, uniform street layout, this is far from your usual Scottish town. That’s because when the new Inveraray Castle was being built, the Duke of Argyll cleared out the old town and moved it here!

There are plenty of things to see in Inveraray and it’s a great spot for lunch or coffee. Get your bearings first and wander the streets, but head to the old Inveraray Bell Tower. It has a great view of the town from the top, as well as the heaviest peel of bells in Scotland, all named after a different Scottish saint!

Then discover the less fortunate side of life by stepping into Inveraray Jail. Built at the start of the 1800s after too many prisoners escaped the town house prison! Learn the tough way of life and even tougher penalties of crime at the jail and threaten any misbehaving children with a night in the cells… Open all year round, this place is always top of the list for things to do at Loch Fyne.

Relax In Crarae Garden

I’ve got a feeling that a visit to Crarae Garden might surprise you. Palm trees and a Himalayan woodland garden probably weren’t what you expected to find while visiting Loch Fyne! Then again, a Himalayan garden isn’t where you’d expect to find a 5,500 year old burial chamber either.

Scotland has a surprising number of exotic gardens, many of them like Crarae run by the National Trust for Scotland. We might be quite far north, but the west coast in particular is surprisingly mild.

Crarae was started in 1912 by Lady Grace Campbell who was fortunate to have the “plant hunter” Reginald Farrer for a nephew. He travelled through China, Tibet and Nepal gathering impressive specimens to ship back for her collection.

This isn’t the kind of neatly manicured garden that you often find outside stately homes, it has a much wilder feeling. Woodland and shrubbery sprawl in all directions with a small river tumbling through the middle.

As you wander amongst the Eucalyptus, Bamboo and Blue Poppies with nothing but the sound of birds chirping and water flowing, you could easily be transported to the other side of the world from sunny Argyll.

Step Back In Time At Auchindrain Township

There are few places that can transport you back in time quite like Auchindrain Township. While most visitors to Scotland see how the nobility lived in their grand castles, this is the other side of life.

A few hundred years ago, Scotland was full of small communities known as townships, just like this. With the Highland Clearances, they slowly faded away and you can find their remnants littered around the landscape. Auchindrain was the only real survivor from the Clearances, still inhabited up until the 1960s.

Now it’s an open air museum, allowing us to wander at will and better envisage how those people I often tell stories about actually lived. Townships varied, but generally everybody had their own patch of land to tend alongside a large common grazing area.

Many buildings were longhouses where the family slept in one half and their animals were in the other. Often that’s slightly downhill to help the nasty stuff drain away…

They were real communities. People couldn’t just pop to the shops so if you needed something, your neighbours were the first port of call. If your cottage needed rethatched or your stone wall rebuilt, people chipped in together.

The folks at Auchindrain are keeping history and traditional practices as well. You’ll often find somebody working away or looking after the farm animals still roaming about. You’ll even get a little tablet to provide information instead of invasive information signs.

This is easily one of the best things to do at Loch Fyne, especially if you’ve discovered ancestors who lived in a Highland township. This is your chance to visit Auchindrain and see what their life would have been like.

Stop In At The Egg Shed

Further down Loch Fyne, past Lochgilphead, you’ll find the tiny village of Ardrishaig and the Egg Shed. It’s a lovely wee space that operates as a local museum, telling the story of the Crinan Canal and much more. You’ll even find a display with some stories from the COAST project I worked with this year!

The canal is known as Scotland’s most beautiful shortcut, saving sailors a long and dangerous journey around Kintyre. There are artifacts supplied by the community as well as a giant egg to sit in and listen to local tales. As far as I know, there aren’t any real eggs for sale.

Take In The View At Tarbert Castle

This ruin with a view is the Royal Castle of Tarbert. It’s just a small part of what was once an enormous fortress guarding an important crossing. Not of the sea loch below, but across the dry land behind the castle.

The clue is in the name, Tarbert means a strip of land between two bodies of water, narrow enough to portage a boat across. It comes from Old Irish, literally “drag boat” and there’s at least a dozen similar placenames around Scotland. Crossing the mile long stretch Tarbert saved sailors a treacherous journey around the length of Kintyre.

At the end of the 11th century, Tarbert played a crucial role in Scottish history. The Norwegian King Magnus Barelegs had battered Edgar King of Scots into agreeing a treaty signing over all the islands off Scotland’s west coast.

A stickler for the fine print, Magnus asked Edgar to confirm the definition of an island. The no doubt grumpy King huffed that obviously an island is a piece of land that you can sail a boat all the way around. With that, the Norwegian must have smirked.

That’s because Magnus wasn’t happy with just traditional islands, he wanted Kintyre as well. His ship sailed all the way around the long peninsula until he came to Tarbert, where his men dragged it out of the water and across to the loch on the other side. All the while, he stayed at the helm “‘sailing”.

Kintyre was declared an island and included as part of the Norwegian treaty, although I wouldn’t want to be in the room when the King of Scots found out!

Your next step is to take the Calmac ferry from below the castle and set out to the other side of Loch Fyne!

Don’t Miss Kilfinan & The Lamont Aisle

When I was researching the best things to do at Loch Fyne, I very nearly missed this place. Kilfinan is on the other side of the loch from Tarbert, a tiny spot that you could easily drive right through. I actually did until the name made me think again. Kil- usually denotes a very old church, coming from the Gaelic for a hermit’s cell.

So I turned around, drove back and I’m so glad that I did. As well as a very nice little church, around the back you’ll find the Lamont Burial Aisle. While the burial space wasn’t added until 1633 by Sir Coll Lamont, it’s now used to hold many earlier graveslabs. Many of these were created for Lamont Clan Chiefs and show the typical yet incredible Highland warrior style.

The upstairs gallery has lots of local information and I actually met the lady who put it all together. The village hall is across from the church and since the door was open with ceilidh music blaring, I poked my head inside. I was lucky enough to meet friendly locals, get a hot cup of tea and hear lots of stories!

Go For A Paddle At Otter Ferry

Otter Ferry isn’t the biggest place you’ll visit on Loch Fyne, I’d be surprised if you found many people here at all! Once it was a bustling spot, with a regular ferry and a pier for big steamers. Now that the ferry has moved to run between Portavadie & Tarbert, it’s a more peaceful spot.

The old pier can still be found at Otter Ferry, but I’m sorry to say it has nothing to do with cute wee animals. Like most places around Loch Fyne, the name comes from Gaelic. It means a shingle strip that sticks out into the loch.

Even though I was racing against the early autumn sunset, this was one of those situations where I just couldn’t bring myself to rush. The water was calm, the scenery perfect and the Labrador having far too much fun.

If you want to slow down, focus on the present and appreciate the moment then this is the place to do it. It’s also an excellent spot to go for a paddle, either with a kayak or in your trunks! Molly can confirm.

Hunt For Ghosts At Old Castle Lachlan

Old Castle Lachlan was once the bustling home of the chief of Clan MacLachlan, although it’s a peaceful ruin now. Access has been improved greatly in recent years, you can now find a small car park and wooden bridge to guide you safely there! The castle dates back to the 15th century, although probably replaced something even earlier.

The MacLachlans had been loyal Jacobites, but when Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in 1745, Lachlan MacLachlan had his doubts. To make matters worse, the castle’s ancient wee Brownie by the name of Master Harry approached the chief in distress. He’d had a vision of a stranger in the North who would spell doom for Lachlan.

Regardless of his own fate, the chief knew his clan were eager to fight. As he left the castle at the head of 100 men, Lachlan stopped to pray at nearby Kilmory Chapel. This is where almost every chief before him was buried and you can still visit today. Remounting his horse, it turned three times anti-clockwise – a terrible omen.

Sadly Lachlan MacLachlan was plucked from his saddle by a cannonball while leading his men at Culloden. The horse survived though and is said to have found its own way home to Loch Fyne. When it swam across the narrow strip of water to Old Castle Lachlan, the inhabitants knew their chief wasn’t coming home.

The horse was inconsolable, refusing to leave the stables. It stayed even when a Navy warship sailed up the loch and bombarded the castle into pieces. It’s spirit is thought to still be there. The sound of its whinny echoes around the shell of Old Castle Lachlan and hooves crunch through the rubble. You might be far too distracted by the view down the loch to listen though!

Admire The Tinker’s Heart

The last of our things to do at Loch Fyne, near the end of the road, is to admire the Tinker’s Heart. High on a hill above the loch and beside the old road, the view is incredible! Made out of quartz stones, this is the only recognised, permanent memorial to Scotland’s Traveller community.

The origins of the Heart are murky, but one story claims it was created to remember Travellers who joined the 1745 Jacobite Rising, many of whom didn’t return. It became a popular site for weddings and children’s blessings, not just for that community, but local families too.

It was in a prominent position, at the junction of three important local roads. However, when the road along Loch Fyne was being improved in 1928, the authorities were ignorant to the importance of the memorial and it was destroyed!

Travellers and locals alike protested the desecration and the Heart was soon reinstated in its current position. Recently it was in danger of being destroyed again by grazing cattle, with only a flimsy fence to protect it. After a hard fight by those it matters to, the Heart now has a sturdy barrier and has been declared a protected national monument.

Traveller’s are always good storytellers, many tales I tell probably began life in their camps. The reason they were often called Tinkers in Scotland was because of their skill in mending metal objects. Arriving tinkers were often something to look forward to!

It’s said that during the Highland Clearances, when droves of people lost their homes and were forced to take to the roads, Travellers welcomed many of them into their way of life. How fitting then, that the memorial is in the shape of a Tinker’s Heart.

Take A Loch Fyne Sea Tour

If you’re looking for something different, some would argue that you can’t visit Loch Fyne without getting out on the water itself! Luckily, you don’t need to bring your own boat, just book with Loch Fyne Sea Tours instead. They run daily tours from Strachur for up to 12 passengers during the season.

Cruise around Loch Fyne, exploring inlets and bays as you go. Everything looks better when you see it from the water, especially Old Castle Lachlan! They know the best spots for wildlife photography or you could try wild swimming with expert Swim Dan the Merman. If you’ve got your own ideas then a private charter might be the best option!

Where To Eat Around Loch Fyne

You’re not short of great food in Argyll and this is where to eat around Loch Fyne!

Loch Fyne Oyster Bar – There’s only one place to start, you’ll find this at the head of Loch Fyne. Fresh seafood ither for sitting in or takeaway – you’re welcome.

Brambles of Inveraray – There’s no better place for lunch in Inveraray. No need for a booking and dogs are welcome!

The George Hotel – Looking for a good pub with food and rooms? The George Hotel has you covered.

The Oystercatcher – Found at Otter Ferry on the quiet side of Loch Fyne, the oystercatcher has won plenty of awards for a good reason!

Where To Stay Around Loch Fyne

It’s a long way to go for a daytrip, so you might be wondering where to stay around Loch Fyne.

Loch Fyne Hotel & Spa – Found in Inveraray, stay in a little luxury while you’re here and enjoy the spa. A good bit warmer swimming here than in the loch itself.

George Hotel Inveraray – Just wander upstairs after your evening meal (or stumble after a few drams) to enjoy a good nights sleep!

Kilfinan Hotel – If it’s peace and quiet you’re after, then the Kilfinan Hotel is the perfect spot!

Book New Castle Lachlan – If you REALLY want to treat yourself, then you can hire New Castle Lachlan! I don’t think I need to say much more, it’s a castle for goodness sake!

If these locations have caught your interest, how about visiting them on a Scotland’s Stories Tour?

Just click this link to make an enquiry and book your private driving tour today!

If you’ve conquered Loch Fyne and now looking for somewhere new then how about carrying on west and heading to the Isle of Islay?

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