Gartmore

Gartmore is a small planned village in Stirlingshire, laid out in the 18th century by the Graham family of Gartmore House on the edge of what is now Queen Elizabeth Forest Park. Barely 400 people live here across a couple of hundred houses, and the village keeps a village shop, a post office, a primary school and a community hall going between them — the kind of place where the pub noticeboard still matters. Sitting a mile off the A81 between Glasgow and Aberfoyle, right on the boundary of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, Gartmore looks out over the Menteith Hills to Ben Lomond, with Loch Ard Forest rolling away behind it.

The village itself is worth a slow walk: a Conservation Area centred on the green, with Gartmore House (now used as an outdoor centre) at its heart and the ruined 16th-century tower of Gartartan Castle nearby. But most visitors use Gartmore as a quiet base for exploring the wider Trossachs — the loch, forest and hill country that starts almost as soon as you leave the village behind, with Aberfoyle two miles down the road as the nearest proper hub for shops, cafes and forest-park facilities.

Top things to do near Gartmore

Gartmore sits right at the gateway to the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park, so there is a lot to fill a few days without ever getting in the car for long.

• Queen Elizabeth Forest Park — thousands of acres of forest, loch and hill immediately south of the village, laced with way-marked walking and cycling trails through Loch Ard Forest.
• David Marshall Lodge — the forest park's visitor centre near Aberfoyle, with a cafe, wildlife-watching room (ospreys and red squirrels on camera) and the Waterfall Trail out to Little Fawn Waterfall.
• Go Ape Aberfoyle — Scotland's first tree-top adventure course, based at David Marshall Lodge, with zip wires, rope bridges and Tarzan swings through the forest canopy.
• Loch Ard — a beautiful, much quieter loch than its famous neighbour, good for a gentle walk, a picnic or a paddle, a few minutes from Gartmore.
• Aberfoyle — the nearest village of any size, with shops, cafes, the Rob Roy connections that give the area its tourist trail, and the start of the Duke's Pass road over to Loch Katrine.
• Loch Katrine — a short drive over the Duke's Pass, where the steamship Sir Walter Scott cruises the loch that inspired much of the Trossachs' Victorian tourist boom.
• Ben Lomond — visible from the village and climbable from Rowardennan on the loch's eastern shore, the most southerly Munro and one of Scotland's most popular hill walks.

Getting to Gartmore

Gartmore sits a mile off the A81, roughly midway between Glasgow (about 25 miles south) and Aberfoyle (2 miles north). From Glasgow, the most direct route is the A81 through Strathblane and Aberfoyle; from Stirling, it is a run of around 16 miles via the A84 and A873 past the Lake of Menteith. There is no rail station in the village — the closest are Stirling or Glasgow, from where a car or local bus connection is needed to finish the journey, as public transport into Gartmore itself is limited. Most visitors arrive by car, which is also the easiest way to get around once here, since the surrounding attractions are spread across the forest park and loch shores rather than clustered in one place.

Best time to visit Gartmore

Late spring through early autumn (May to September) is the easiest time to visit, with long daylight hours for walking and cycling and the forest at its greenest. June can be glorious but is also peak midge season in this part of Scotland, so pack repellent for anywhere near still water or woodland in the evenings. Autumn brings out the colour in Loch Ard Forest and the Trossachs more generally, and is a quieter, still-mild alternative to summer. Winter is hushed and atmospheric, but expect short days, wet ground underfoot and the possibility of snow on higher ground such as Ben Lomond.

Where to stay near Gartmore

Options in Gartmore itself are limited, with the Black Bull offering rooms alongside its bar and dining, so most visitors base themselves a little wider — in Aberfoyle, Callander, or Stirling — and use Gartmore as a stop on a day out rather than a fixed base. Self-catering cottages and B&Bs are dotted through the surrounding villages, and there is also Gartmore House itself, run as an outdoor education and residential centre. For flexibility, Aberfoyle two miles away has the widest choice of guest houses and small hotels within easy reach of the village.

Food and drink near Gartmore

The Black Bull Inn is the village's own pub, serving food and drink and hosting occasional live music in what is very much the community's front room. For more choice, Aberfoyle has a handful of cafes and restaurants geared towards walkers and day-trippers, and the Ben View Garden Centre a short drive from Gartmore has a conservatory restaurant that is popular locally for a sit-down lunch. Do not expect a big-town range of options here — the appeal of Gartmore is exactly that it has kept its scale small.