Inverarnan Canal
A short, lost canal of 1844 at the head of Loch Lomond, cut so the steamers could reach the drovers' inn at Inverarnan.
The Inverarnan Canal is one of Scotland's lost canals, a short straight cut of about 530 yards at the head of Loch Lomond that once let the loch steamers sail right up to Inverarnan.
Before it, boats had to struggle up the River Falloch, with its shallows, gravel banks and bends. The steamship owners David Napier and John McMurrick backed the scheme, and work began in 1842, but wet weather and hard, snowy winters held it up, and though the cut had no locks at all, it was not finished until 1844.
That year the steamer Loch Lomond became the first to come up the Falloch and through the canal to a turning basin at Garabal, beside the inn at Inverarnan, now the Drovers Inn, where stagecoaches waited to carry passengers on into Argyll and the north. Steamers brought passengers, mail and goods up from Balloch. The canal has long fallen out of use, but its line can still be traced beside the river below the inn.
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The line of the canal lies beside the River Falloch below the Drovers Inn at Inverarnan, on the A82 north of Ardlui.
- Where
- Inverarnan, on the A82 north of Loch Lomond.
- Built
- 1842 to 1844.
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Add your reviewInverarnan, at the head of Loch Lomond.
The Drovers InnThe old drovers' inn at Inverarnan, opened in 1705, with a stuffed grizzly bear in the hall and a name for ghosts.Under a mile 1 min by road
Falls of FallochA waterfall in Glen Falloch with a pool called Rob Roy's Bathtub and a steel viewing platform by the artist John Kennedy.2 miles 3 min by road
Woven Sound, Falls of Falloch2 miles 3 min by road
Beinn ChabhairThe rocky Munro above Inverarnan at the head of Loch Lomond, climbed past the waterfalls of the Ben Glas Burn.2 miles 3 min by road
An CaistealA Munro of 996 metres above Glen Falloch near Crianlarich, climbed from the A82 by Sron Gharbh and the Twistin Hill ridge.4 miles as the crow flies
Ben VorlichA Munro of 943 metres above the west shore of Loch Lomond, the most northerly of the Arrochar Alps, climbed from Inveruglas on the A82.4 miles as the crow flies
Places to stay near the canal, and when each is next free.
Monachyle Mhor- To stay
- In Balquhidder
- 10 miles from the canal
Kabn- Sleeps 2
- In Cairndow
- 11 miles from the canal
Suie Hunting Lodge- To stay
- In Luib
- 12 miles from the canal
Red Squirrel Cottage- Sleeps 6
- In Lochgoilhead
- 14 miles from the canal
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For further reading, before you go. The details on this page were checked on .