Location: Balloch Castle
Country Park
Dunbartonshire
Grade: Easy low-level walk
Distance: 5km/3 miles
Time: 2 hours
Balloch Castle is a rare example of an almost intact designed landscape. The fashion for creating harmonious landscapes around big houses reached its peak in England with the work of Capability Brown and his contemporaries.
Such large-scale landscaping was unusual in Scotland, but here at Balloch Castle we can see the work of the designer, Robert Lugar, still evident on the ground as we walk around today’s Country Park.
Lugar had, of course, the natural backdrop of Loch Lomond at its most southerly point, where the River Leven runs out from the loch.
He used this to good effect to create the all-important panoramas with trees framing the loch and the surrounding hills.
Within this frame are a number of striking elements, some of which are still being uncovered as work on restoring and enhancing the landscape goes on here.
Thus at the side of the house there is a ‘Chinese’ Garden, reflecting the 19th century fascination with all things Oriental. There are also many fine specimen trees.
And at the north end of the park, contrasting with the sweeping contours of the main areas, is the secretive little Fairy Glen – all parks should have one! – with its sparkling burn running down and unexpected corners where the ‘little folk’ might be hiding.
Visitors looking for a genuine castle might be a touch disappointed. At the centre of the park is a fine mansion house, designed by Lugar for John Buchanan of Ardoch in 1808 and A-listed, but it isn’t really a castle.
There was a genuine, much older fortification here and its scant remains can be made out from the lochside path as we walk back south on this circuit.
The estate was purchased by Glasgow Corporation in 1915 as a public open space – a farsighted move for which we should all be grateful.
The park is leased to West Dunbartonshire Council and is now within the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park.
Balloch Castle today offers great opportunities for peaceful recreation, and the walk described here, though short, is still very enjoyable. A recent addition has been waymarking for the John Muir Way, a long distance trail that runs from Muir’s birthplace in Dunbar right across Central Scotland to Helensburgh.
It passes through Balloch as it nears the end of its journey.
Visiting Balloch Castle is a pleasure at any time of year and it is a place you can return to many times without it growing stale.
Roger Smith
ROUTE PLANNER
Map: OS 1:25,000 Explorer sheet 347 (Loch Lomond South). An excellent free map of the park is available locally or through www.trossachs.co.uk
Distance: 5km/3 miles
Time: 2 hours
Start/finish: Balloch railway station (GR: NS390818)
Public transport: Frequent trains to Glasgow Queen Street.
Information: Balloch TIC, 01389 753533.
Route: From the station, cross Balloch Road and TR. Cross the River Leven and take the second road on the left. At a car park go R. Cross broad track and continue to Kitchen Garden and Secret Garden. Walk out to main track heading N. Cross East Drive and continue to Visitor Centre and Chinese Garden. Return to main track which becomes a path (Coo Lane). At Burn of Balloch TL down Fairy Glen. At foot of glen TL and follow main path by the loch past the Old Boathouse to walk by River Leven. Continue to Balloch Road and TR for station.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here