Former torpedo site near Loch Lomond to become major holiday accommodation hub with hotel and cabins
The derelict site has become a source of frustration for locals by attracting antisocial behaviour and litter
A derelict torpedo site in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park is to be transformed into holiday accommodation.
The 11-hectare on the banks of Loch Long in Arrochar, in Argyll & Bute, is soon to be home to a hotel, cabins, holiday homes and motorhome spaces.
Formerly owned by the Ministry of Defence, the site has lain largely derelict since the torpedo station ceased operations in 1986, having opened in 1912.
As a result of decades of inactivity, the site has become an ongoing source of frustration for residents, attracting fly-tipping, littering and anti-social behaviour despite efforts to secure the site.
Proposed by the new landowner, Ardnagal Estates, the development includes 14 holiday homes, 34 holiday lodges, a 34-bedroom hotel, 20 glamping pods, 6 motorhome pitches, an outdoor play area, and associated parking and native landscaping.
The development aims to deliver a range of accommodation and leisure services that will complement and enhance existing provision in the area, without placing pressure on the surrounding landscape, biodiversity or local infrastructure.
Arrochar is already home to three large hotels and a campsite. The village is also within a few miles from a large hotel in Tarbert and Ardgarten. Locals have spoken about how the village is dominated by holiday lets and second homes, leading to a decline in services for residents and pupils in the local school. In the last few years, Arrochar has lost its bank, a village shop, its post office and its church has closed.
Claire Chapman, of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, said the holiday development marks a “significant step forward” in addressing what has been a blight on both the local community and the environment.
“The site has been identified in both the existing Local Development Plan, which guides new development in the National Park, and in the community's Local Place Plan,” she said.
"Permission for this application also secures commitments from the developer to protect and enhance the site's natural environment, ensuring the area's landscape and environmental sensitivities are safeguarded for the long term, and will help bring the site back into positive use. That is a very welcome outcome for people, and for nature."
As well as the development, the LLTNPA said efforts will be made to improve biodiversity at the site through the removal of invasive non-native plant species, such as Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed and extensive native planting.
National park officers said the development will also open up public and community access to the loch through a revitalised pier, and new leisure services, including a play park to add a family-friendly amenity for residents and visitors.
They said the site's location also makes it well-placed to encourage visitors to explore beyond the busiest parts of the national park, helping to ease congestion around some of the most popular hotspots.
In total, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park sees some 4.5million visitors a year, a figure not far off the entire population of Scotland. Rangers said the figure is to be expected given the park lies within roughly and hour’s drive from about 50 per cent of the country’s population.
The number of visitors to the location is also more than double the number of people visiting the Cairngorms National Park, which is more than twice the size geographically.
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