The Brown Bull stands at 33 Main Street, a family-run pub that has been serving the village for more than two hundred years. It was named Scotland's Pub of the Year in 2016, and separately once judged the friendliest pub in Scotland, which is a lot of goodwill for one address. Inside you get real ales and home-cooked bar food, with homemade soups the thing to order — lentil and ham are the ones people come back for. Bar meals run Wednesday to Sunday; the restaurant opens Friday and Saturday evenings. Dogs are welcome.
If you want somewhere smaller, the Corner Bar sits where High Street meets St Winnoc Road, close to the loch. It is mostly a drinking pub, with two real-ale pumps kept, like everything else on the bar, in good order. One visitor called it "the friendliest pub in the village," which puts it in direct competition with the Brown Bull's national title. The Three Churches Inn on Church Street, formerly the Garthland Arms, makes three.
For food to take home there is the Heritage Farmers Market Shop on Main Street, a butcher and deli doing homemade pies, bakery goods, local cheeses, free-range eggs and hot takeaway. It also runs as the collection point for the Eat Lochwinnoch organic scheme and a drop-off for Locavore veg boxes. Nearby, 21 Grains bakes organic sourdoughs, pastries and cakes, open 9am to 2pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Cucina Minucci at The Junction Café does all-day food and welcomes dogs.
The reason to be here, though, is the water. The village sits on the bank of Castle Semple Loch, and the Castle Semple Country Park spreads across roughly 200 acres with footpaths, cycle routes and easy access for rowing, sailing, kayaking and paddleboarding. A circular of about 3.2 miles from the visitor centre follows the loch, then climbs through woodland to Park Hill, passing the ruins of the Collegiate Church on the way. At the southern end of the loch, the RSPB reserve has bird hides and a boardwalk. The name may come from the Gaelic for a loch rich in birds, and the reserve makes the case.
The old railway line is now National Cycle Route 7, a level path you can walk or cycle to the neighbouring village of Howwood. The current station is on the Ayrshire Coast Line: ScotRail runs roughly hourly to Glasgow Central in about 23 minutes, and onward to the seaside at Largs. By car it is around half an hour to Glasgow via the A737.
At the eastern end of the High Street, only the front gable of St John's Kirk still stands, clock and all. It is known locally as Auld Simon. The parents of the weaver-poet Robert Tannahill married here on 29 August 1763.
The village kept itself busy over the centuries. Nine mills were working by 1795, and the Calder furniture works became the largest in Scotland, its dining-room pieces fitting out Clyde-built liners including the Lusitania and the Queen Mary. From 1906 to 2006 the Struthers factory made a soft drink called Koala Kola. The recipe is gone, but the loch is still there, and the birds still come to it.