Conic Hill – Loch Lomond's Islands, Then Lunch in Balmaha
3 miles · 1 hour · a hill
Conic Hill is known as a mountain in miniature.
It rises straight out of Balmaha on the east shore of Loch Lomond, with the village pub at its foot for lunch after.
Where it starts
Stirling Council's car park at Balmaha, where the path starts and the 309 stops.
Is it for me?
Tap who is coming, or the day you have, for the answer on this walk.
Before you go
On the path
Three to four hours there and back, with time at the top. A steep stone-pitched hill path, about 340 metres of climb to the 361-metre summit; the path's own top is the first top, a little lower. For children, a steep hour's climb; the view opens a third of the way up, so short legs can turn back there.
Good to know
All year, in daylight, and best on a clear, still day for the view. On a lead all the way: sheep graze the hill. From mid-April to the end of May dogs aren't allowed, even on a lead, in the two enclosed fields on the east side, the way up from Drymen; the path from Balmaha doesn't cross them. The path has been shut after winter storms: ask at the visitor centre or read the notices on westhighlandway.org.
The walk
Conic Hill is a climb from the National Park's visitor centre in Balmaha to the top, 361 metres high, and back down the same path: 5 km, about 3 miles, in all. The walk's own page, the National Park's, has a route card that allows two and a half hours of walking; with time on top, the Park suggests three to four. The path climbs about 340 metres, and steeply: a forest track at first, then a stone path up the open hill, with a steeper path at the end to the summit. It is as steep coming down, so wear boots.
For most of the way up this is the West Highland Way, on a path the National Park rebuilt between 2022 and 2025 with more than 2,000 tonnes of stone from a quarry at Dumbarton, some of it flown in. It was laid by stone pitching, an old craft in which each stone is bedded into the slope like a dry-stone wall turned on its back. The hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, so keep to the path. The view opens from about a third of the way up.
The summit path leaves the West Highland Way for the ridge, where a first, lower top comes about 300 metres before the true summit. Conic Hill sits right on the Highland Boundary Fault, where the Lowlands give way to the Highlands, with a change of rock, land and wildlife. From the top you can trace the fault across the loch in a chain of islands: Inchcailloch, Torrinch, Creinch and Inchmurrin, the largest island in any freshwater loch in Britain. Up the loch to the north, Ben Lomond, the southernmost Munro, and the peaks of the Arrochar Alps across the water close the view.
Inchcailloch, the island just off Balmaha, is named for St Kentigerna, a missionary who settled there in 717. For some 500 years the parish rowed across to its church every Sunday, and Rob Roy's MacGregor forebears lie in its burial ground.
Back in Balmaha, the visitor centre opens 9.30am to 4pm, daily in October and at weekends from November to March.
If it rains
In low cloud, rain or high wind, stop where the woods end and the open hill begins, and come down to an early lunch at the Oak Tree Inn.
On the way
- Milarrochy Bay
Milarrochy Bay is a mile or so up the shore road from Balmaha, a bay on the loch with free toilets. Going there adds about 5 minutes of driving.
Afterwards
The Oak Tree Inn
Lunch
The Oak Tree Inn stands across the road from the car park, the walkers' pub at the foot of the path. If it is full, St Mocha next door, the first of the St Mocha coffee shops and the place that roasts their coffee, is the other place to try.
Before you go
Book a table at the Oak Tree Inn
Book a table at the Oak Tree Inn in Balmaha for lunch, above all at a weekend.
After the walk
Coffee and cake, something to do with the rest of the day, and dinner, nearest the end of the walk first.
With the rest of the day
10 min by roadThings to doRowardennanThe lochside at the foot of Ben Lomond, in the National Memorial Park, with a beach and the start of the path to the summit.
13 min by roadThings to doFinnich GlenA deep, mossy gorge of red sandstone near Killearn, where the burn runs blood-red past the rock called the Devil's Pulpit.
13 min by roadThings to doDevil’s PulpitUsed as St Ninian’s Spring in the first series of Outlander, the Devil’s Pulpit is a picturesque waterfall in Finnich GlenFor dinner
Fintry Inn in Fintry, 26 minutes by road. The village pub on Main Street in Fintry, with a bar, a restaurant and a beer garden, pub classics, and a music session on Sunday afternoons.
Vivi & Co in Bearsden, 28 minutes by road. A family-run coffee house and eatery on Drymen Road in Bearsden, with brunch, cakes, cocktails and a toasted s'mores hot chocolate.
Nick's at Port of Menteith in Port of Menteith, 29 minutes by road. Nick and Julia Nairn's country restaurant on the Lochend Estate at Port of Menteith, with Roman-style pizza, a daily menu and a kitchen garden beside it.
Places to stay near the walk
Our places to stay nearest the start, by road.
None of ours is close to the start. The nearest is Moment Blythswood Street, 23 miles from the start. Sleeps 2. An advert.
Then Cromlix in Kinbuck, 31 miles from the start. An advert.
More walks near here
Within a short drive of the start.
Did this walk?
Tell the next person how it went. The best go on this page, with your name.
For further reading, before you go.
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