6 Days, Multiple Departures
As Featured On BBC One's Grand Tours Of Scotlands Lochs
Set in the Heart of the Trossachs and Loch Lomond National Park. Originally a 17th Century Garrison, now an Sustainable Small Holding Eco Hill Farm.
We offer our guests the choice of 2 Huge Executive Suites located in our converted barn overlooking the Arrochar Mountain Alps. The rooms are not in the main farmhouse, individual entrance doors onto courtyard gives our guests freedom to come and go as they please.
History of Garrison of Inversnaid
The Garrison Of Inversnaid was built in 1718 following the Jacobite uprising of 1715. The Duke of Montrose employed Rob Roy MacGregor as his chief cattle procurer and herder. Rob Roy borrowed a sum of money from creditors and was unable to pay it back right away so they placed an ad in the Edinburg Gazette thus declaring him an outlaw. As the employer of Rob Roy the Duke needed to be seen to be disciplining his rogue employee and so he wrote to the King of England and requested a Garrison be built in the centre of Clan Gregor land, which of course is right here.
The Duke and Rob Roy feuded for many years. The Duke had the Garrisons soldiers burn down Rob Roys house at Coriarklet , and so, Rob Roy abducted the Dukes Factor and held him hostage on factor Island just opposite the Pier Cafe on Loch Katrine. Whilst holding the factor hostage Rob Roy went around collecting the land tenants money and signing in the Dukes name.
The Garrison remained a garrison barracks for 80 or so years and then was owned by 2 ladies who used it as a kind of 'Inn'. After this it was owned by the Buchan family who extended the original Garrison walls and made it into a sheep farm up until around 1980.
Local attractions
Due to our location in the heart of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park we are perfect for all types of breaks including walking, biking* (secure storage available), fishing, boating and local Scottish history. We are 1 mile off the West Highland Way, 24 miles from Stirling, 12 miles from Aberfoyle. 1 hours drive from Glasgow and Prestwick airports and Stirling Train station.
We moved here from our professional careers in London in May 2014 following a life-changing accident (on Kelly's part) and decided we wanted a change of lifestyle. We found the retreat place on an internet search, it was the first place to pop up, and following long discussions (mostly including the remoteness of it) we took the chance and bought it.
We continued with our professional jobs for the first 2 years here in Scotland whilst we basically dug the place out and renovated the byre into the rooms you stay in now. We rented the rooms to the bunkhouse for one and a half years and then decided to start the bed and breakfast.
This made sense as we had accumulated various livestock and were growing all our own vegetables already. So we just scaled up what we were already doing to enable enough food for our guests also.
Our mission is to share the place's forgotten history, and how it has evolved and changed to suit people's requirements throughout its 300+ years. Also to share that it is achievable to live, eat and work in a sustainable way to reduce our impact on this beautiful planet for now and the future.