Loch Lomond

The loch stretches from the Lowlands into the Highlands, its southern shores dotted with oak-covered islands and its northern reaches narrowing between mountains that rise straight from the waterline. Loch Lomond holds more fresh water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined, and on still mornings the surface mirrors the sky so precisely the islands appear to float in nothing.

Loch Lomond marks the geological boundary between the Scottish Highlands and the Lowlands — the Highland Boundary Fault runs directly beneath its waters. Thirty islands scatter across the loch, from Inchcailloch with its ruined nunnery and ancient oak forest to tiny Inchmurrin with its ruined castle. The West Highland Way follows the eastern shore through native woodland, and kayak hire from Balmaha opens the island-studded south to exploration. Ben Lomond, the most southerly Munro, rises from the eastern shore to a summit panorama that reaches from the Arrochar Alps to Stirling.