The Loch Lomond Arms has reopened in Luss after a six-month transformation, bringing new life to a 17th-century former coaching inn on the western shore of Loch Lomond. The 15-room property remains a village pub as well as a place to stay, with a design built around local character and the stories of the Colquhoun family, who have held the surrounding estate for more than 800 years.
Patrick Colquhoun led the project and worked with British interior designer Russell Sage, known for his work at The Fife Arms in Braemar. The aim, they said, was not to create a five-star hotel, but an inn where food, design and welcome receive care while guests can still mix with local residents.
The rooms have no numbers. Instead, each is named after a person or episode from the family’s history, drawing on eight centuries of archives and heirlooms. The Wallabies suite, for example, recalls Fiona Colquhoun, later Countess of Arran, who released red-necked wallabies on the nearby island of Inchconnachan in the 1940s. A room called Nova Scotia Love Potion takes inspiration from an ancestor remembered for making an illicit elixir.
Sage’s team restored and hand-painted furniture from the family’s collection rather than furnishing the inn with new pieces. Historical details also appear in the shared spaces, including vintage maps in the Map Room and a stuffed lion connected to one of Colquhoun’s great-grandfathers. QR codes on the bedroom doors offer further stories about the people and events behind each room.
The inn’s food and drink are served in The Stag & Two Hounds, where the kitchen uses produce raised, caught or foraged on the estate. The menu includes house-cured Scottish salmon and a steak and Lomond ale pie made with estate beef. The property also offers experiences tied to the surrounding area, including 4x4 trips into the hills and speedboat outings to Inchconnachan. A candlelit dining room, The Treasury, is also in preparation.
The Loch Lomond Arms is part of Luss Estates, which also rents historic cottages in the village. The estate says it plans to carry the same design-led approach into future projects across its land.
Sources: Vogue.