Ardlui Hotel, Marina & Holiday Home Park A window on Loch Lomond

This area is where Argyll all but borders on Glasgow. It stretches from the River Clyde south of Helensburgh, to the northern end of Loch Lomond, the largest inland loch in Great Britain and arguably the most famous.

On its west side the area includes the Gare Loch, all of the east side and the top of the west side of Loch Long and the Rosneath peninsula lying between these lochs.

Much of the area is within Scotland’s first national park Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. This includes the Arrochar Alps and the ancient Argyll forest at the head of the Cowal peninsula.



The conjunction of the complex Clyde waterway system, the inland waters of Loch Lomond and the great mountains around Arrochar – with the international golf course at Loch Lomond make this area a sporting wonderland.

However, paradise traditionally has a serpent. The idyll of the area is subverted by the omnipresence of the British military machine. The Gare Loch has the nuclear submarine base of Faslane twinned with the permanent peace camp across the road. This base has seen everything from the triumphalist to the embarrassing. The submarine that sank the General Belgrano in the Falklands War returned here flying the Skull and Crossbones. The submarine that managed to collide with the Isle of Skye limped back to laughs all round.