Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park

Cowal is known as the Seaboard Gateway to The Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. Within Cowal, the Park Area stretches from Holy Loch in the South East of Cowal , to the Arrochar Alps in the North, taking in the entire East Coast and much of the central area of the Peninsula.Taking in much of Argyll Forest Park, the National Park is an area of contrasts from sea shore to high mountains with many rivers and lochs, forests and woodlands.  Outwith Cowal, the Park covers Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine to Killin and the tip of Loch Awe.

An amazing wealth of wildife

There are good numbers of mammal species throughout the park area, including red and roe deer, otters, red squirrels and pine martens.In the sea lochs are common seals, porpoises and otters with the occasional dolphin, basking shark and even sometimes a whale. The park is particularly rich in birdlife. On the hills and moors live curlew, snipe, raven, red grouse, ptarmigan and golden eagle .

On one or two of the hill lochans there are red-throated divers. Woodland provides habitat for flycatcher and redstart, warblers, finches and tits, with buzzards and the occasional sea eagle soaring overhead and occasionally black grouse.The shoreline provides even more bird species, including oystercatcher and heron. Eider and merganser can be spotted near the water's edge with the spectacular dive of a gannet farther out over the water a common sight.