Loch Awe

Loch Awe lies in Argyll and Bute, the third-largest freshwater loch in Scotland. It stretches forty-one kilometres from end to end, averaging only one kilometre wide, and drains west through the River Awe into the Atlantic. Two hotels mark its narrowest point where a ferry once carried cattle drovers to markets. A cable laid across the loch in 1955 linked the village of Kilchrenan to the transatlantic network. On the eastern shore an aquaculture site at Braevallich raises fish beside the water. The loch supplies two hydroelectric schemes. Inverawe power station, built in the late 1950s, uses a submerged tunnel to feed water through Kaplan turbines made by Boving and Company. A second, more unusual scheme is Cruachan, a pumped storage plant with a visitor centre and tunnels deep inside Ben Cruachan. Salmon pass the barrage on their way upstream, though research shows fish passes can hinder migration. The station’s slow-spinning turbine delays smolt descent and increases predation by pike and trout. Visitors find Kilchurn Castle at the northern end, reached by boat or an eight-hundred-metre walk from a small car park. St Conan’s Kirk stands in the village of Lochawe, noted for its striking church architecture. The railway station and the old Loch Awe Hotel share the single street beside the loch, while the Ben Cruachan Inn recalls the days of horse-drawn coaches. The A85 road and the West Highland Line follow the northern shore, offering views across the water to the hills beyond.