Road tripping: Balmaha

Saturday was the nicest day Scotland has seen in … I don’t know how long. After what seems like the longest winter ever, there was actual sun. I could hardly believe it. Since the weather was in our favour we had two options: sit in the garden and soak it up or get out of the city. We opted for the later, and an hour-and-a-half later, we found ourselves in Balmaha, on the banks of Loch Lomond.

Super accessible (like I said, 1.5 hours from Edinburgh, 30 mins from Glasgow) Balmaha offers the perfect opportunity to enjoy a piece of Loch Lomond, without venturing too far into the West Highland Way. For example, we intended to do the Millenium Walk, but ended up off course. A walk that should have taken 45 minutes took us two hours. But that’s the beauty of it; you’ll always see something that catches your eye and pulls you off course.

Our walk left us hungry, so we stopped at the Oak Tree Inn for lunch. This is a lovely spot on the edge of the loch, which serves a wide range of food from pizza to burgers and salad. We had macaroni cheese (yum) and a burger. It saw us right after our adventure.

There are a lot of different walks you can do in that part of world – there is a visitor centre in the Balmaha car park, which is  great resource if you’re planning a serious walk. For us, Saturday was all about getting out of Edinburgh, enjoying the countryside and showing a bit of appreciation for Scotland. Personally, I’ve given this country a really hard time of late as the weather has been unseasonably bad. It took all of a sunny day and a hike to the top of a hill to remind me that Scotland is beautiful. Faith has been restored. I hope you all had a lovely weekend.