Loch Arklet

Loch Arklet lies in the heart of the Trossachs, a small loch caught between the two great names of the region: Loch Katrine to the east and Loch Lomond to the west. To find it, you drive past the pier café at Stronachlachar and follow the narrow single-track road towards Inversnaid - and suddenly this wide, bare sheet of water opens up on your right.

I was here in January, at a time of year when the Trossachs belong entirely to themselves. No wind, barely a sound, only the water and the gently rising hills behind it, dissolving into shades of grey in the soft winter light. A fence runs through the bleached grass along the shore, and over everything lies that motionless stillness you only find in the cold season.

Loch Arklet is part of the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, yet it stands completely in the shadow of its famous neighbours. That is exactly what makes it special to me: no tour boats, no crowds, just a landscape that has nothing to prove. Little colour, plenty of space, a loch that mirrors the hills around it without ever drowning them out.

Sorting through these images now, I realise how much I miss Scotland. Loch Arklet taught me that a place doesn’t have to be dramatic to stay with you - sometimes stillness is enough.