Aldochlay

Wee Peter and the sheltered bay

At the edge of Bandry Bay, on a plinth the loch reaches in the wet months, stands a small stone boy called Wee Peter. By local account, he arrived in 1890, after a stonemason found him discarded in a London scrapyard and carried him north. In winter, when the water climbs the plinth, he serves as a rough gauge of how high Loch Lomond has risen.

There is not much more to Aldochlay's public life than that. The village is a thin line of traditional cottages between the old Luss road and the newer A82, on a sheltered stretch of the loch's western shore. The gardens run to colour, boats sit at their moorings, and less than five hundred metres offshore lies the wooded island of Inchtavannach, close enough to watch the light move across it through the day. Woodland closes in to the south and west, so the place feels set against the hill rather than exposed on the water.

Cottages, houseboats, moorings and Luss food

Low Aldochlay Cottage, single-storey and built of rubble in the mid-nineteenth century, still has its gun-loop-headed windows and a small timber porch. By local account, until the 1970s the bay held a line of brightly painted houseboats; the moorings and boat club that remain keep some of that character. There is an informal launch here for canoes and paddleboards, but the lay-by is small and parking is limited, so it pays to arrive early.

For a pub, a shop and a proper meal you go the mile or so north to Luss. The Loch Lomond Arms is a seventeenth-century coaching inn whose bar, The Stag & Two Hounds, pours three changing cask ales, usually from Loch Lomond Brewery, and cooks with produce from the Luss Estate. Dogs are welcome and there is a beer garden. Along the street, The Village Rest does black-pudding fritters from the local butcher, haggis pakora, a haggis-and-Scottish-cheddar burger, steak-and-mushroom pie and freshly battered haddock, with a separate menu for dogs. One visitor called it "the best we visited in our weeks stay at Loch Lomond." The Luss General Store on Pier Road stocks shortbread, heather honey, handmade Scottish chocolate, gin and whisky, and Scoff & Patter, the café at Luss Distillery, bakes its own focaccia and lays on brunch plates and cakes.

Luss Parish Church and its graveyard

Luss Parish Church, St Mackessog's, was built in 1875 of pink sandstone with honey-coloured dressings. Inside is a 1612 MacFarlane memento-mori panel; in the graveyard sit sixth-century cross-slabs and an eleventh-century hogback stone whose sides were later recut with Romanesque arcades.

Paths from the door

The walking starts at the door. The West Loch Lomond Cycle Path, level and waymarked, passes Aldochlay on its way between Balloch and Tarbet, and the short Luss village paths take in the pier, the sheep meadows and the old slate quarry, whose stone once roofed Glasgow tenements. For a longer day, the Beinn Dubh horseshoe climbs 725 metres over grass and peat for views across the loch and out to the Arrochar Alps.

Family stops, transport and the island view

Children get the sandy beach at Luss and a faerie trail through the woods that ends at a farm with Highland cows and goats, though the water stays cold whatever the season. Balloch station is about ten kilometres south, and the 302 bus stops at Low Aldochlay Cottage on its way to Luss and Helensburgh, Monday to Saturday. The shore is a good place to watch the boats swing on their moorings and the light shift on Inchtavannach.