A landscape view of daisies and broom above the stony bay, with waves rolling in and white houses among trees on the far shore.
Perthshire

Loch Rannoch

A long Highland loch west of Kinloch Rannoch, with a road right round its shore, sandy bays, the old pinewood of the Black Wood and Schiehallion above.

Welcome

West of Kinloch Rannoch, Loch Rannoch stretches away for miles between long wooded shores, with the cone of Schiehallion rising behind the village and the hills closing in towards Rannoch Moor at the far end.

A road runs right round it, one on each shore, so the loch can be followed all the way round.

The shores are fringed with birch and broom, bright yellow in early summer, and there are small sandy bays where the water laps in over the stones. On the south side, the Black Wood of Rannoch is one of the last great fragments of the old Caledonian pine forest, and on the north shore the Craiganour estate hides James Turrell's Skyspace in its trees.

It is a loch for slow days: a swim from a quiet beach, a picnic by the water, a walk among the pines, or a drive round in the evening light.

Before you go

Free, at any time.

Roads run along both shores, meeting at the dam at the west end, with laybys and small beaches along the way.

Where
West of Kinloch Rannoch, Highland Perthshire.
On its shores
Kinloch Rannoch, the Black Wood of Rannoch, the Craiganour Skyspace.

Did you know

Two weathered interpretation boards, one headed Loch Rannoch with a map, sit on a stone plinth before broom and a view down the loch.
Did you know

A road round it.

Roads run along both the north and south shores of Loch Rannoch.

Tall Scots pines lean over a sandy shore scattered with stones, with the loch and a wooded hill under grey cloud at left.
Did you know

Old pinewood.

The Black Wood of Rannoch on the south shore is ancient Caledonian pine forest.

The two arches of the stone bridge seen from the riverbank, yellow broom in the foreground and dark water below.
Did you know

A soldiers' village.

Kinloch Rannoch, at the east end, was settled after 1745 by discharged soldiers.

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Stay nearby

Places to stay near the loch, and when each is next free.

Hidden Scotland, the magazine

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Find out more

For further reading, before you go.