Loch View Large Family Accommodation
At the western end of Loch Katrine, at the water’s edge, stands Stronachlachar Lodge.
The road ends at the pier. Beyond it, eleven miles of one of Scotland’s most beautiful and historically significant lochs stretch east into the Trossachs. The Lodge sits directly on that shoreline, its gardens running down towards the water. From the main rooms you look straight across Loch Katrine to hills that shift colour with the seasons. It is open, expansive and deeply calm.
Trossachs Family Escapes
Stronachlachar Lodge has six bedrooms and four bathrooms, arranged for extended families and groups who want to stay together comfortably without feeling crowded.
The kitchen is built for real use. Three ovens. Two dishwashers. Multiple fridges and freezers. Generous preparation space. A dining table where everyone sits properly together. Guests mention repeatedly how unusual it is to find a house that genuinely works for twelve people.
The lounge faces the loch and centres around a wood burner, creating a comfortable gathering space in every season. A separate games room with a pool table gives younger guests room to spread out while remaining part of the house.
Bedrooms are generous and well-positioned. Windows frame water or woodland. You wake to the view.
Guests describe the house as:
“A huge house with amazing views from every room.”
“Spacious, well-equipped and perfect for a big family gathering.”
“One of the best breaks we have ever had.
Loch Katrine, Scotland’s Most Historic Loch
Loch Katrine is eleven miles long and more than 540 feet deep. Since 1859, it has supplied fresh water to Glasgow via a 23.5-mile gravity-fed aqueduct system opened by Queen Victoria, who arrived here by steamer for the ceremony. The water still travels fourteen hours by gravity alone to the city.
Directly in front of the Lodge lies Factor’s Island.
In the late seventeenth century, the outlaw and clan chief Rob Roy MacGregor, born across the loch at Glengyle, imprisoned the Duke of Montrose’s estate factor there during a dispute over land rents. When the loch’s level was raised for the waterworks, the island became smaller than it had been in Rob Roy’s lifetime. It remains clearly visible from the house.
In 1810, Sir Walter Scott published The Lady of the Lake, set at Loch Katrine. It sold 25,000 copies within eight months and transformed this landscape into the birthplace of Scottish tourism. Visitors arrived by rail and steamship as part of the celebrated Trossachs Tour, formalised by Thomas Cook. They disembarked at Stronachlachar and continued by horse-drawn carriage to Loch Lomond.
The Lodge occupies that former hotel building.
You are not staying near the history. You are staying within it.
Steamship, Forest and Dark Skies
From late March to early October, the historic Steamship Sir Walter Scott, launched here in 1900 after being transported north in sections and hauled overland by horse, sails between Stronachlachar and Trossachs Pier, arriving twice daily at 11.30am and 3.30pm
The Lodge sits within the Great Trossachs Forest, a 200-year woodland restoration project covering an area larger than Greater Glasgow. Red squirrels move through the trees. Ospreys fish on the loch. Pine martens have returned.
At night, there are no streetlights. On clear evenings, the stars are sharp and abundant, reflected faintly on still water.
Just a few miles away lies the RSPB Inversnaid Reserve on Loch Lomond. Ancient Atlantic oak woodland and waterfalls can be reached by a short drive or longer walk.
At the Heart of the Trossachs
Aberfoyle is eleven miles away, around twenty-five minutes by car, with cafés, a Co-op supermarket, gift shops, gravel bike trails, and cycle hire.
Callander, Stirling Castle, the National Wallace Monument, Doune Castle, Deanston Distillery, Blair Drummond Safari Park, The Kelpies and The Falkirk Wheel are all within easy reach.
You can explore widely across the Trossachs and Central Scotland.
Or you can stay by the water and let the days unfold at their own pace, in Scotland’s first National Park.
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