Arrochar and Tarbet – Where the Vikings Hauled Their Boats

The walk

The Rest and Be Thankful is the top of the pass between Loch Long and Loch Fyne, where the A83 climbs out of Glen Croe to about 800 feet, and the large car park here is free. Travellers have stopped at the top of this long climb for nearly three centuries. The stone at the bottom of the car park, where the old road comes in, records the military road's repair by the 93rd Regiment in 1768.

That old road still runs along the floor of the glen below today's, which was built in the 1930s. Wordsworth came over the pass in 1803 and wrote a sonnet about it. Give it twenty minutes.

Traffic lights or a convoy on the old road are sometimes used on the A83 through the glen, so look at Traffic Scotland's A83 page before setting out.

Afterwards

1. About 10 min by car

   

   The Hidden Heritage Trail

   Tarbet's name is the Gaelic for a portage, where boats were carried overland from one water to the next. The saga tells how King Hakon of Norway sent sixty ships up Loch Long in 1263, and how the crews dragged them from Arrochar to Loch Lomond. The Hidden Heritage Trail is an easy loop of about 3.5 miles across the same ground, on pavements and firm paths. It starts and ends at the Three Villages Hall in Arrochar, with the car park beside the public toilets at the hall: its signs give the terms. The trail follows the shore of Loch Long with the Cobbler's jagged tops in view, then crosses to Tarbet past the outline of a Victorian curling pond and the old toll house. It comes back by the old Ballyhennan graveyard and the railway, with a long view down Loch Long. Allow one to two hours.

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2. About 10 min on foot

   

   The Village Inn

   Lunch

   After the loop, walk about ten minutes south along the shore road from the hall to the Village Inn, which looks across the water to the Arrochar Alps. It's a family-run inn with log fires in the bar and a beer garden looking over Loch Long. The menu runs from soup to fish and chips, steak pie, and haggis, neeps and tatties, with a vegetarian haggis and a children's menu. It's open all year: ring 01301 702279 to check its opening days and food times, or book a table through its website.

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