The Lochs of Scotland — Our Loch-by-Loch Guide

Our loch guides

Full guides to the lochs we know best — where to stay, eat, walk and ride, with our own photos.

Loch LomondBritain's biggest loch by area — Luss, Balloch, Balmaha and the islands.Loch KatrineThe jewel of the Trossachs — steamship, oakwoods and a traffic-free lochside ride.Loch AweScotland's longest freshwater loch, Kilchurn Castle and St Conan's Kirk.Loch FyneScotland's longest sea loch — Inveraray, oysters and the Tarbert ferry.Loch RiddonA quiet Cowal sea loch above Tighnabruaich and the Kyles of Bute.Loch LevenMary, Queen of Scots' island prison and a 13-mile walk round the water.

Our loch list — and how it works

The lochs are the thread that ties our Scotland together. We tour by motorhome and join them up by bike, and this is our growing loch-by-loch guide — every loch we’ve properly explored, grouped by region, with the villages, history, rides, walks and good places to eat and drink around each one.

It’s a living list: as our rides connect more lochs, they land here and start linking to each other. Below is where we are so far.

How the lochs measure up

Scotland’s lochs rank in surprising ways — the biggest by area isn’t the biggest by water, and the deepest is neither. Here’s where the giants stand:

And the real jaw-dropper: Loch Ness alone holds more fresh water than every lake in England and Wales put together — and yet Switzerland’s Lake Geneva holds nearly twelve times as much water again (89 km³ to Ness’s 7.45), plunging to 310 m — as deep as Loch Morar, the deepest in Britain. Set against an Alpine giant, even Scotland’s monster is a minnow.

Loch Lomond & The Trossachs

Scotland’s first National Park, and about the densest cluster of lochs in the country — “the Highlands in miniature,” within an hour of Glasgow.

Loch Lomond

Loch Venachar

Immediately west of Callander — its quiet south-shore road (Invertrossachs Road) is a cycling gem, and it’s the first loch on our 46 km Trossachs lochs ride. Base: Callander.

Loch Achray & Loch Drunkie

Two small, wooded lochs in the heart of the Trossachs — the Achray Forest, the Duke’s Pass, and more of that same 46 km ride from Callander. Base: Callander.

Loch Katrine ⭐

The jewel of the Trossachs — the loch Sir Walter Scott made famous with The Lady of the Lake, the source of Glasgow’s drinking water since 1859, and home to the steamship SS Sir Walter Scott (1899) and the Rob Roy III, still sailing today. — the boat trips, the ancient Trossachs oakwoods and traffic-free lochside cycling. Base: Callander.

Loch Lubnaig

“The next loch” north of Callander, up the Pass of Leny — the traffic-free old-railway cycle path runs right along its shore to Strathyre. A flat, easy, family-friendly ride or walk. Base: Callander.

Loch Earn

North via Lochearnhead, with St Fillans at its east end — watersports country.

Breadalbane & Highland Perthshire

Loch Tay

A 14-mile loch with Killin at its head — the roaring Falls of Dochart, St Fillan’s ancient healing stones, the Clan MacNab burial island, good tea rooms and a lovely hotel. Our 60 km ride runs the quiet south shore to Kenmore and back, under Ben Lawers (the highest hill in the southern Highlands). One of our very favourite loch bases anywhere.

Argyll & Cowal

Loch Fyne

Scotland’s longest sea loch — a byword for oysters and seafood — with the whitewashed town of Inveraray on its shore and the wider Loch Fyne running deep into Argyll.

Loch Riddon

A quiet Cowal sea loch by the Kyles of Bute, above Tighnabruaich — one of the most peaceful corners we’ve found, with gorgeous gravel-road cycling above the water. See Loch Riddon.

Loch Awe

Scotland’s longest freshwater loch (~25 miles), below Ben Cruachan — with the great Campbell ruin of Kilchurn Castle at its head and the extraordinary St Conan’s Kirk on its north shore.

Fife & Kinross

Loch Leven

The great lowland loch at Kinross, ringed by a 13-mile Heritage Trail and famous for two things: the island castle where Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned and made her escape, and the 20,000+ pink-footed geese that winter here.

The Great Glen & the North

Loch Ness

The most famous loch of all — deep, dark and some 23 miles long down the Great Glen, holding more fresh water than every lake in England and Wales put together (and, of course, its monster). Fort Augustus sits at its south-west end, where the Caledonian Canal steps down into it.

Loch Lochy

A long, deep freshwater loch on the Caledonian Canal, and the scene of the bloody 1544 Battle of the Shirts. Laggan Locks sits at its north-east end.

Loch Oich

The summit loch of the Caledonian Canal — its highest point — with a half-sunken boat and the ruins of Invergarry Castle on its shore. Reached from Laggan Locks.

More to come

This list grows every time our wheels reach a new one. Next on the water: the long ride out to Loch Katrine with the SS Sir Walter Scott — and plenty more lochs as the rides join them up. If there’s a loch you’d love us to cover, that’s exactly the kind of thing we’re building toward.