A walk · Strathlachlan

Old Castle Lachlan – A Ruin and a Chapel on Loch Fyne

1¼ miles1 hourflatthere and back

dogs on a lead

Walk it now Print the walk Route for Garmin (GPX)

Old Castle Lachlan stands roofless on a point of rock in Lachlan Bay, on the east shore of Loch Fyne.

The Lachlan Trust's path leads to it from Inver, by the chapel where the clan's chiefs are buried.

Where it starts

Start at the car park at Inver restaurant, at the head of Lachlan Bay on the B8000, about six miles south of Strachur.

Walk it now Directions to the start

Is it for me?

Tap who is coming, or the day you have, for the answer on this walk.

Before you go

On the path

About an hour, the Lachlan Trust's own figure: a level path from Inver round the bay to the castle and back. Level, on a boardwalk, a footbridge and a farm track, with gates to open and close. The track beyond the castle is overgrown. Short and level, with a bridge and a ruined castle. The Trust prints a Children's Explorer Trail leaflet. The map to carry is OS Explorer 362, Cowal West & Isle of Bute (1:25,000).

Good to know

All year in daylight. Dogs on a lead: the path crosses private farmland. The bay is tidal: keep to the boardwalk and the track.

The walk

This walk goes from Inver, the restaurant at the head of Lachlan Bay, round the bay to Old Castle Lachlan, with a turn to Kilmorie Chapel, and back the same way. It is about a mile and a quarter (2 km) in all. The castle is about half a mile (0.8 km) from Inver, and the chapel is a short branch of about 200 metres each way, which a shorter walk can leave out. The Lachlan Trust gives about an hour for the walk to the Old Castle. The way is a woodland path, a boardwalk, a footbridge and a farm track, on low ground between sea level and about 10 metres, with gates to close. Past the castle the track runs on, a little overgrown, to a gate and the rough bay of Garbh Chamas; the Trust says access may be limited for people who have difficulty walking. The walk's own page, from the Trust, has its leaflet and map.

Inver began as a croft whose tenants paid some of the rent in fish from the loch. In 1968 Marjorie Maclachlan of Maclachlan, the clan's only woman chief, made it a restaurant.

Birches and rowans line the first stretch; the rowan is Clan Maclachlan's own tree. A fork leads to Kilmorie Chapel, the church of Mary or of St Maelrubha in Gaelic, which fell out of use when a new church went up at Strathlachlan in 1792. The Lachlan Trust saved it from collapse in 2006. Every chief since the 15th century lies here except three who died in battle, and Marjorie is buried at the entrance.

Old Castle Lachlan across the bay, seen between two birch trunks on the shore, a brown hill behind.

From the footbridge the Lachlan River runs dead straight: it was put in a channel in the 19th century, and the bank the path follows was raised to drain the marsh. Along the bay both castles are in view: the old fortress on the shore, and New Castle Lachlan inland, where the chief's family still lives.

The curved wooden footbridge over the river at the head of the bay in autumn grass, the castle small on its point at the left.

At Old Castle Lachlan a castle has stood since at least 1314, and the one there now is 15th-century. Behind its one small door, a tower house stands on each side of a courtyard. The western one held both a solar and a great hall, two grand rooms for the chief, which is rare in Scottish castles. The Maclachlans' chief was killed at Culloden in 1746, fighting for Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the castle was never lived in again. Tradition has it that his riderless horse swam the loch home and stayed by the castle until it died.

The ruined castle on its low point of rock, ivy over one wall, grey water in front and hills in the mist.

Inver, at the start, is a restaurant with rooms rather than a café, and it opens on set days only: book a table on its own website before you go.

If it rains

Go in a waterproof: the walk is short, and the bay is open to the wind off the loch.

Before you go

Book lunch at Inver
Book a table on Inver's website before you go.

After the walk

Something to do with the rest of the day, and dinner, nearest the end of the walk first.

With the rest of the day

12 min by roadThings to doStrachur Smiddy Museum and CraftsA village blacksmith's shop at Strachur, worked by four generations of Montgomerys and kept as a museum with a working forge.

For dinner

Inver, Strathlachlan in Cairndow, a minute by road. A restaurant with rooms on the shore of Loch Fyne at Strathlachlan, holding four AA Rosettes, cooking seafood, foraged food and local produce under chef Pam Brunton.

Loch Fyne Oyster Bar in Cairndow, 28 minutes by road. The oyster bar, restaurant and deli at the head of Loch Fyne where Loch Fyne Oysters began in 1978, selling oysters, smoked salmon and shellfish.