The Cowal Peninsula hosts the Cowal Games, the world's largest pipe band festival (usually last week in August) and is bounded on the West by Loch Fyne (famous for its oysters) and Loch Long and the Firth of Clyde on the East.  The area is home to the Lamont and MacLachlan clans.  The beautiful, narrow and sinuous Loch Eck, 2 miles to the north west of the lodge is home to the the protected Powan (a rare and unusual freshwater herring landlocked once the Ice age ended), as well as brown trout and salmon.  There is excellent fishing in Loch Eck and the local rivers for Brown Trout, Salmon and Sea Trout.  Across Cowal, there are numerous activity sports as well as numerous local golf courses and other sporting activities, including watersports and pony trekking in the Holy Loch area. 

One and a half miles to the North of the Lodge are one of Scotland's most beautiful Botanical gardens, the Younger Botanic Garden also known as Benmore Gardens.  H.G. Younger donated the garden to the nation in 1929 when it was chosen as a specialist outpost of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.  Its mild climate and high rainfall was found to be especially suited to the cultivation of the plants gathered on the botanical expeditions of George Forrest in western China between 1904 and 1932. In 125 acres of hillside walks you can find the world famous avenue of Giant Californian Redwoods (giant sequoia) planted in 1863 and now over 135 feet tall, one of worlds finest collection of Rhododendrons, rare and endangered native Scottish plants, a Bhutanese Glade, Tasmanian Ridge, and Chilean Rainforest Glade. Open from 1 March - 31 October although access is permitted at other times.