Loch Katrine by Boat and Bike – Stronachlachar and Inversnaid
A day by bike, from Trossachs Pier and back.
The route
Loch Katrine lies at the centre of the Trossachs, eight miles of water between wooded hills, and has been Glasgow's water supply since 1859.
Its boats sail from Trossachs Pier, at the east end, reached by road from Callander or from Aberfoyle over the Duke's Pass. This route crosses the loch to Stronachlachar with hired bikes aboard, then follows a single-track road past Loch Arklet and down to Inversnaid, where the Arklet Water falls into Loch Lomond beside a hotel and a pier. The ride is about five miles each way, with one stiff climb on the way back, before the afternoon boat down the loch.
Before you go
Book the boat to Stronachlachar and back
Ring the boat office on 01877 376315 to confirm that the boat is landing at Stronachlachar on your day, then book the ticket it sells as the Split Return Out From Trossachs Pier (Freedom Ticket), out on the 10.30am and back from Stronachlachar on the 3.30pm, and ask for a place for each bike on both.
Book Bikes from Katrine Wheelz
Once the boat is booked, book the bikes for the full day, online or on 01877 332722, and give the date, the sailing and the riders' heights.
The day
Katrine
The day leaves Trossachs Pier on the 10.30am boat and comes back on the 3.30pm, with about four hours at the far end of the loch between them. Those hours hold a hot drink on the pier at Stronachlachar, a quiet road beside Loch Arklet and a picnic by the falls at Inversnaid. The last stop is the tower above the pier, looking back along the water.
Steamship Café
A café
The day starts at Trossachs Pier, at the east end of Loch Katrine, where the public road stops. Leave the car in the pier's car park, which charges, by 9.15am, in time for a coffee at the Steamship Cafe, whose windows and patio look onto the water. Collect your bikes at about 9.45am from Katrine Wheelz, the hire cabin by the pier. The road on along the loch is private and shut to cars, so from here the day belongs to the boat and the bikes.
The boat to Stronachlachar
The morning boat leaves Trossachs Pier at 10.30am, with the bikes aboard. It is the steamship Sir Walter Scott, the loch's famous ship. She was built at Dumbarton in 1899, carried in pieces by barge up Loch Lomond and by horse and cart over the hill, and rebuilt at Stronachlachar in 1900. She still runs on her first engine. The boat soon passes Ellen's Isle, named for the heroine of Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake, set on this loch.
1 hr by boat
The Pier Cafe
A café
It's about an hour's crossing to Stronachlachar, landing at about 11.30am at a pier and a few houses on the south shore, at the west end of the loch. The Pier Cafe stands at the landing, family-run and licensed, with tables that look out over the water you've just sailed. Stop for a hot drink, and buy lunch to take away unless you've brought your own: there is nowhere to buy food on the road ahead, and the hotel at Inversnaid caters mainly for its own coach parties.
10 min by bike
Loch Arklet
An attraction
It's about 10 minutes' ride west on the single-track road to Loch Arklet, a reservoir since its west end was dammed in the 1910s to add to Glasgow's water. The road runs along its north shore, and the Arrochar Alps, the hills beyond Loch Lomond, stand on the skyline ahead. Rob Roy MacGregor was married at Corriearklet, the farm just above the road. Watch the hillsides for feral goats. Cars use this road too, so keep in single file.
20 min by bike
Inversnaid Waterfall
An attraction
Inversnaid is about 20 minutes' ride on. At the top of the hill, Garrison Farm keeps the rubble walls of a barracks built in 1718 and 1719, after the 1715 Jacobite rising, and the RSPB's car park has an accessible toilet. The road then drops steeply through oakwood to Loch Lomond, so try your brakes first. The Arklet Water comes down its last falls into the loch beside the hotel, and a footbridge crosses the burn, or stream, at the falls. Eat your picnic by the pier, and leave by 2.15pm.
About 35 min by bike
The boat back to Trossachs Pier
The ride back to Stronachlachar takes about 45 minutes. The first mile and a quarter is the hill you came down, and there's no shame in walking the bike up it. The last boat leaves the pier at 3.30pm, so be there by 3.15pm. If you won't make it, ring the boat office on 01877 376315 and the hire cabin on 01877 332722. No later boat or bus comes, and both ways back by bike are long: 14 miles by the private road round the north shore, or 18 through Aberfoyle.
1 hr by boat
The Scenic Tower
It's about an hour's crossing back down the loch, landing at Trossachs Pier at about 4.30pm. Hand the bikes in at the hire cabin, which shuts at 5pm, then take the short, steep path up to the Scenic Tower on the headland above the pier. It opened in August 2024 at the viewpoint credited with moving Walter Scott to write The Lady of the Lake. From the top the loch runs away west between the hills, the way you've just come.
If it rains
The boat has a cabin as well as its open decks, and the cafés at the two piers are the day's only sure shelter: the road from Stronachlachar to Inversnaid is open to the weather, and so is the pier at Inversnaid. If steady rain is forecast, ring Katrine Wheelz on 01877 332722 about the bikes and sail without them. Stay aboard the 10.30am for the two-hour round trip, or step off at Stronachlachar, have lunch at the Pier Cafe, walk out along Loch Arklet for as long as you like, and come back for the 3.30pm. On a day of showers the ride is still worth making in waterproofs, because the falls at Inversnaid are at their fullest after rain; take the hill down to the loch slowly on a wet road.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.
Photographs by thepiercafe, VisitScotland / Kenny Lam and Alan Weir; Todd Anderson via Google