The Falls of Lora – Tidal Rapids and Lunch at the Oyster Inn
A few hours.
The route
At Connel, just north-east of Oban, Loch Etive squeezes out to the sea under a great steel bridge, and on a big falling tide the water races out in white rapids called the Falls of Lora.
Watch them from the shore, then go next door for lunch by the fire at the Oyster Inn, once the inn for the old ferry here.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The day
Connel
An hour by the water at the mouth of Loch Etive. Time it for a falling tide to see the rapids at their wildest, then settle in for a long lunch at the inn beside them.
About two hours
Connel Bridge
An attraction
Park in the small Falls of Lora car park on the shore, just south of the bridge and beside the Oyster Inn; the signs there show how long you can park. From the shore you look across the narrow mouth of Loch Etive to Connel Bridge, the great steel cantilever that opened in 1903 to carry the railway north to Ballachulish and now carries the road. Beneath it run the Falls of Lora. When a big tide goes out, the sea outside drops below the level of the loch, and the water pours out over a rock shelf in white rapids. They run strongest in the days around each spring tide, the big tides near a new or full moon. Check the tide times for Oban and come while the tide is falling. At slack water the loch mouth is calm and lovely all the same. The current is fierce, so keep children back from the water's edge.
The Oyster Inn, Connel
Lunch
Lunch is a few steps from the car park at the Oyster Inn, an old ferryman's inn on the shore, so there's no more driving. Its Gluepot bar serves food from noon to 8pm, with local oysters on the menu and a log fire in winter. The Oyster Restaurant, for supper, opens from 5pm to 8pm. Over Christmas and New Year, ring 01631 710 666 to check.
If it rains
In heavy rain, see the falls from the shore by the car park in a few minutes, and let lunch run long by the Gluepot's fire.
The Oyster Inn, Connel, a restaurant in Connel.