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Situated on the banks of Loch Lomond in the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Forest, the hotel offers spectacular views of Ben Lomond, the loch and mountains to the north. It would be difficult to imagine a more beautiful situation for any building. The hotel lies at the foot of Ben Lomond (3,192 feet high) and is beautifully ringed round by woods. It stands practically on the loch which is magnificent in all its moods. It is part of the turbulent history of the district which was the stamping ground of that almost legendary outlaw, Rob Roy MacGregor. It was to the Rowardennan Inn, as it was then known, that Robert, one of Rob Roy's sons, brought a kidnapped heiress and forced her to go through a ceremony of marriage; a ploy which brought him eventually to the gallows in Edinburgh. Earlier, in 1716, residents of the inn must have witnessed the passage of the odd little fleet that came against the MacGregors and retired in triumph after burning a few small boats. In its peaceful capacity, the inn served as a wayside halt for the wild drovers who brought their equally wild, shaggy cattle across the loch by ferry on their way to the famous markets that were held at Stirling and Falkirk. The ferry, too, still runs in the summer months for the use of pedestrians and cyclists. The Ferry Field, between the hotel and the pier, also commemorates those stirring days.
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