If weather conditions permit, excursions take place all year round; take off from the Culag Lochside Guesthouse, on the shores of Loch Lomond, in central Scotland, reaching even the most remote and unknown corners of the region. If you wish to stop for lunch, the company can also recommend inns and restaurants overlooking fjords and lakes, where you can enjoy the best of local cuisine.
Silently fly over woods, moors, and gorges inhabited by birds of prey and wildlife; admire from above islands and islets with strange and rugged shapes; spy on towering cliffs inhabited by thousands of seabirds, and finally land, with the lightness of a dragonfly, on the water’s surface, gently rocked by the waves of a lake or an inlet. Scotland by seaplane, as offered by the company Loch Lomond Seaplanes, is undoubtedly one of the not only most original and exciting but also most natural ways to discover a region so rich in lakes and inlets.
The company is headquartered in Helensburgh, in Argyll, but usually, takeoff happens from Loch Lomond, in Central Scotland, near the charming town of Luss. The excursion programs satisfy all tastes and budgets, with durations varying depending on the itinerary.
The shortest and most economical
In just 30 minutes and for 110 pounds per person, you can fly over Loch Lomond, the largest lake in all of Great Britain, admiring its very green shores: the eastern one, quieter and wilder, and the western one, bustling with activity and tourist settlements. Fly over characterful towns like Luss, always full of tourists and with its delightful row of cottages, converted from old humble houses built between the 1700s and 1800s by slate quarry workers and silk mill employees. Or Inverbeg, where the two shores come close again and you can spy the handful of islets that rise in the middle of the basin. The largest, Inchmurrin, hosts the remains of Lennox Castle. From the lake, you move on to the nearby Trossachs National Park, shaped by spectacular heights covered with dense woods and dotted with 18 tiny lakes.
The intermediate
Those who love the coast can try a 45-minute flight (145 pounds per person) to admire the rugged outline of Kintyre (southwestern Scotland), the finger-shaped peninsula stretched toward the coasts of Northern Ireland; then passing by islands like Jura, rough and mountainous, with pastures dotted with sheep; Islay, the small homeland of peated whisky, whose high cliffs are home to hundreds of seabirds; or Arran, further south, with an oval-shaped profile, long beaches, woods, cultivated fields, and the summit of Goatfell mountain dominating everything. Finally, a spectacular view over the nearby Firth of Clyde, the estuary of the Clyde, the river of Glasgow, which, meeting the ocean, carves the coast into twisting and irregular arms. One of the most evocative areas of the region, where many species of migratory birds stop and where many aquatic species live permanently in the most protected and remote areas. This has made several sectors declared nature reserves and sites of special scientific interest.
