Bowling Harbour

📌 Bowling, West Dunbartonshire
★★

Just off the busy A82 dual carriageway, Bowling village is normally bypassed by tourists on the rat-run towards Loch Lomond and the West Highlands. Sandwiched between a steep hillside and the Firth of Clyde, the settlement shares a narrow strip of land barely 300 metres across with two A-roads, two railway lines (one dismantled) and a canal. In this confined space it seems foolish to expect room for peace and beauty, but head down the initially unpromising lane to Bowling Basin and you’ll stumble across a quiet haven of moorings, yachts, canal locks, and paths down to the shore. The basin marks the western end of the Forth & Clyde canal connecting both sides of Scotland; the whole route was restored and reopened in 2001 after decades of dereliction, and more recent works are transforming Bowling Harbour itself. Bike hire is also available, with cycle tracks snaking west to Dumbarton and east along the canal towpath.