Loch Lomond Food and Drink Festival & Exploring Balloch
- lomondappletree
- Oct 1
- 3 min read
A couple of weeks ago, we travelled to Balloch to visit the Loch Lomond Food and Drink Festival. Balloch is only about a fifteen-minute drive from Appletree Cottage (or around thirty minutes by push bike, depending on fitness) and is a popular base for many activities.
In addition to the Lomond Food and Drink Festival, which takes place twice every year – in April and in September, Balloch is the hub for many of the tourist pleasure boat tours around Loch Lomond. Long and short voyages, depending on your selection, will take you on a tour amongst the loch’s 23 islands.
Balloch is a popular mooring site for private pleasure boats and at this time of year the River Leven hosts a very busy marina on either side of Balloch Bridge.
Balloch Country Park, on the north east edge of the village, is an interesting place to visit. In addition to the ancient and historic Balloch Castle, which stands on the site of the original 13th Century castle, and is currently undergoing restoration.
Throughout the park, there are many wood sculptures, each caringly carved by a local craftsman. A great thing for the younger people in the party to spot.
The views from the park over towards the village and to the loch are panoramic. The open parkland is a popular place for picnicers, and for those with lots of energy and a desire for cold water, there is access to wild swimming in the loch.
The view from the park also takes in the unfortunate structure of the Sealife Centre. Opened in 2002 in a design that was billed as recreating a Scottish Broch, which is a type of Iron Age dwelling, found predominantly in the western highlands of Scotland. The centre houses over 1,500 sea creatures.
It features a “Tropical Ocean Tunnel” where visitors can come face to face with Blacktip Sharks, Rays, and other sea creatures.
For those wishing to visit, it is sometimes cheaper to purchase tickets online than at the door.
On the day we visited Balloch, the September Food and Drink Festival was surrounding the Sealife Centre and the shops which comprise the Lomond Shores Mall.
The stalls were many, selling everything from meats, cakes, sweets, as well as locally manufactured spirits such as gin, and other interesting concoctions. The festival was well attended, and there were queues at several of the hot food outlets, which had set themselves up in a separate area of the market.
Lomond Shores itself is a small shopping mall, one side of which is an open promenade alongside the shore of the loch. The views up the loch at this point are quite stunning with the distinctive Ben Lomond towering above the far shore.
At one end of the mall is another outlet for boat tours around the loch. There is also a popular Bird of Prey centre at the end of the mall - more can be found out about this attraction here: https://llbopc.co.uk
Having inspected the market stalls, we wandered eastwards along the walkway which follows the banks of the loch. We passed the popular area where dinghies and paddle boats are hired out for private use. Many of these had been taken with customers enjoying their voyages around the surrounding bays.
Further round the coast, we came to the famous Maid of the Loch paddle steamer. Currently out of the water, the vessel is undergoing a full restoration, with the plan being to re-float her in the coming year. She will be an impressive sight and a popular attraction once back in the water.
All in all, we found that there is plenty to do in Balloch!