Luss is a living postcard. This impossibly picturesque Scottish village could have been sculpted to shine from a shortbread tin. Its trim, wee stone cottages easing towards the famously bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, where the hulk of Ben Lomond broods across the aquarium-clear waters.
Highland cows patrol the fields, and stag antlers adorn the exterior of the village inn. Luss is no mere tourist confection, though, as I discovered when I did what the majority of visitors don’t: stay over.
“Luss looks like a picturebook time warp,” says Mark Snedden with a smile, as he serves me a cocktail in the whisky bar at the Loch Lomond Arms. “A million people come every year, but most just pop in for an hour or two to snap photos – partly because they don’t realise it is a real place with much more depth.”
It doesn’t help that a generation of Scots know Luss as Glendarroch, the fictional Highland village in the TV soap Take the High Road, which, within the spectrum of Scottish culture, is more akin to sentimental Kailyard literature than gritty drama River City. Running from 1980 to 2003, Take the High Road’s 1,517 episodes built and reinforced the idyllic sepia-tinged image of a traditional Highland village.
“To be fair to the series it ploughed money into the village, which we used to revamp some of the cottages that were faded,” says the teenager on the till at Luss General Store as he waves off another tourist snaring a piece of postcard Luss to take away.
Dozens of local buildings, including the store, are now heritage-listed and protected.
On a basic level, TV fame allowed Luss to not just survive but prosper – which certainly isn’t the reality for all Highland villages. Tourism has helped shore up its bedrock: those sturdy stone cottages, built in the 18th century to house workers in the local slate quarries. Today they are reborn not just as housing, but as wee arts and craft studios and tourist-facing businesses too.
Luss General Store lives off tourism, but it is also backed by Luss Estates, which manages land in and around the village, and has been in the same family – the Colquhoun Clan – for eight centuries.
Luss Estates is a progressive operation that continues to invest in the tourism that allows the village to thrive as a real living, working community. It manages three farms run by women.
There are plans to work with Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park to reintroduce cattle grazing in the ancient protected forests and also to sell green hydroelectric energy to local businesses, cutting out the National Grid.
Earlier this year, Luss Estates brought in Russell Sage, the designer behind Restaurant 1890 by Gordon Ramsay at the Savoy, for a spectacular makeover of the Loch Lomond Arms.
Throughout this 17th-century coaching inn, Sage’s plush bric-a-brac style is woven with myriad portraits of the Colquhoun family. The inn’s Stag and Two Hounds bar offers local ales, gins and whiskies, with estate-shot venison, too; a separate restaurant opens next year. In a way, the Loch Lomond Arms is a microcosm for Luss – it feels like a living museum, but is still homely.
Whenever I visit Luss I’m always impressed at the dynamism of a village not content to rest on its hard-won laurels. This time it’s Luss Distillery, opened in February, after Loch Lomond Distilleries cannily began catering to the strong demand for Scottish gin in this village with such strong tourist appeal.
The brilliantly fun distillery tours are a booze-laden joy, drawing in visitors from all over the world. There’s also an onsite cafe, serving a sriracha-spiked twist on a traditional Scottish breakfast morning roll, and a food truck is in the works too. I had feared I’d run out of things to do over the weekend – instead, I’m already planning a return.
I check out the church commissioned by Sir James Colquhoun in the 1870s, which swirls in stories of Saint Kessog and has elegant stained-glass windows, plus Viking hogbacks – carved markers – in its graveyard. Next time I’ll employ one of the local guides to dig deeper.
I also embark on one of the short walks that are signposted around this supremely organised village, but next time I’ll tackle the longer Luss Heritage Walk, which visits the old slate quarries. No fewer than five of Scotland’s long-distance walking trails run nearby, too.
I enjoy a quick wild swim in the loch, which would be more enjoyable had I realised the Luss Hot Tottie Sauna now offers warmth right by the always frigid water.
I’ve previously enjoyed a boat tour with Sweeney’s around the remarkable loch – whose islands host everything from nudists to wallabies and, apparently, fairies – but this time I indulge in a private sunset boat trip on luxurious motor yacht, Beau Jangles.
As the day-trippers melt away, I share a moment with skipper Barry Cairns. “Luss is a special place year-round. I just wish more people realised how much it rewards you when you scratch the surface,” he says, beaming, as Ben Lomond soars above.
Getting there
Trains including the Caledonian Sleeper connect London with Glasgow, with onward rail services to Balloch on Loch Lomond. From there, Luss is less than 20 minutes away by bus or taxi. Alternatively, sail across on the Sweeney’s Cruise Co ferry.
Staying there
Loch Lomond Arms has doubles from £345, including breakfast.