Loch Tummel – Queen's View and Lunch in Kinloch Rannoch
A few hours.
The route
Queen's View looks west along Loch Tummel to Schiehallion, and it's the most popular stop in Highland Perthshire.
From there the road runs beside the loch to General Wade's old bridge at Tummel Bridge and on up the glen by the river. Lunch is in Kinloch Rannoch, in a community-built bar and restaurant beside a waterfall.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Booking ahead is recommended during peak holiday periods, online through the CornerStone's website; walk-ins are welcome where there's room.
The day
Tummel
A gentle morning by car with no hills to climb: a short path out to a famous view, a few minutes by the river at an old stone bridge, then a slow lunch in Kinloch Rannoch.
About three hours
Queen’s View
An attraction
Queen's View is on the B8019 above the north shore of Loch Tummel, and its car park charges £3 for the day. A short path, with a way made for wheelchairs, leads out to the viewpoint, where the loch runs away west between wooded hills towards Schiehallion. Queen Victoria came in 1866 and took the name for her own, though it more likely honours a far older queen: Isabella, Robert the Bruce's first wife. The café and visitor centre by the car park have toilets, so it's a good place to start with a coffee.
13 min by car
The old bridge at Tummel Bridge
It's 13 minutes' drive west along the loch to Tummel Bridge, where Forestry and Land Scotland has a small car park on the Kinloch Rannoch road, a few metres from the junction at the end of the bridge. Beside the modern road bridge is the one General Wade built in 1730, a stone arch high over the rocks of the Tummel that now carries only walkers. The village also has a listed hydro power station from around 1930, among the earliest Scotland built.
13 min by car
The Cornerstone
Lunch
It's 13 minutes' drive on to Kinloch Rannoch. The CornerStone is the village's own bar and restaurant, built and owned by the community, in old stone and new timber beside the falls of the Allt Mor. Lunch is soup made in the kitchen, open sandwiches, a burger of Highland beef and venison, or fish and chips. There's parking at the door, a children's menu and high chairs, and dogs are welcome.
If it rains
Queen's View can vanish in low cloud, though its café and visitor centre are under a roof. On a wet day, go on to Kinloch Rannoch for a long lunch by the wood-burning stove in the CornerStone's Cosy Corner.
On the way
- The Shed Gallery
The photographer Ian Biggs's gallery, just off the Square in Kinloch Rannoch, shows his pictures of the country round about. It opens Wednesday to Saturday, 10.30am to 4.30pm.
Photographs by Queen's View Visitor Centre and Jozef De Strooper via Google
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