THE SMIDDY

Simply the best café in Lochgilphead, open for lunch Monday to Saturday 10am until 4pm. Down a little street that runs parallel with the main street. You can just turn up but it gets very busy, book on 01546 603606. Rosie’s delicious home cooking and inventive food for a café with the most lovely puddings and cakes. Open for coffee when not serving breakfast or lunch.

RUMBLIN’ TUM

Café that is the best thing about Ardrishaig, the next village on from Lochgilphead. Very tasty home-cooked food. You can book ( 01546 606039) but also just turn up. Open for coffee and cake when not serving meals. Not dog friendly. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 3pm.

LUCY’S

We love Lucy’s! A really excellent café (recently reviewed in ‘The Times’) with imaginative home-cooking, lovely cakes and a great place to sit outside on a sunny day. Best to book for lunch as it gets very busy. Ardfern is a pretty seaside village about 20 minutes from the lodges just off the Oban road. After lunch there is a lovely walk on the Craignish peninsula – just keep going until you have to park. Top little bays for wild swimming. Café shut Monday and Tuesday. Dog friendly. Number not available, book online https://lucys-ardrishaig.co.uk/

TAYVALLICH CAFÉ

Lovely stop if you are walking at the Taynish Nature Reserve or swimming at Carsaig. Run as a community enterprise so be patient but the food, coffee and cakes are good. Tables outside on the decking overlooking the sea, as well as tables inside. Open Friday to Monday in winter, Thursday to Monday in summer from March onwards, 10am until 4pm.  You can call ( 01546 870364) but most people turn up and queue if busy. Dogs allowed in outside area.

CRINAN COFFEE SHOP

Owned and run by the famous Crinan Hotel, and a great place for lunch if you are walking down the Crinan Canal. Only open in the spring and summer and does standard but tasty sandwiches, soups and cakes. Open daily March to October 10am until 5pm. Lovely place to sit in the sun and look at the water.

MAC POOL CAFÉ LOCHGILPHEAD

Our local swimming pool ( very good, another community enterprise) now runs a good  café run by Vicky with very tasty food. Used mostly by swimmers but also rapidly becoming a lunch destination too. Good sandwiches and home-made soup and cakes. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 8.30am to 5pm.

POLLY’S COFFEE STOP

Great addition to the world of coffee and cakes in Lochgilphead. Polly’s is a café in a horsebox which parks up at Loch 10 on the Crinan Canal. Spring opening times from March 22nd Friday to Monday 10am until 4pm but if it’s pouring down she shuts up shop. Check opening on her Facebook page and instagram.

SKIPNESS SEAFOOD SHACK

Much further from the lodges ( a good 40 minutes drive) but well worth it for a day out – Skipness is very pretty, with a ruined castle and great walks by the sea. Drive to Tarbert and then keep following the road to Campbeltown until you see the turning to Skipness on your left. The seafood shack is an institution – simply the freshest seafood imaginable and very well cooked. They serve wine too. Great place to sit in the sun and watch the chickens pecking. Service can take a while, but once you’re there, relax. Open all week except for Saturdays (I know, a bit weird). www.skipnessseafoodcabin.co.uk

OBAN, TARBERT AND INVERARY

Too many cafes to name in both places but they are all largely good. Café D’Ora a favourite in Tarbet and I love the coffee at Hinba Coffee on the main street in Oban. Brambles is the best café in Inverary.

HONESTY FRIDGES AND BOXES

These are a welcome feature of the area and often contain the best home-made delicacies and local produce.  The honesty fridge at Kirnan Estate just next door to the lodges is well worth a visit, especially if you want something delicious to cook in your BBQ hut.  Look up their opening hours on kirnanestate.com.  Head out of the lodges, turn right and then turn right again after about half a mile.  Go up the drive and you will see a door on the left labelled the Boathouse.  The fridge is here.  It accepts card and there is even WiFi to make it extra easy!  There is an honesty box selling genuine home-made sourdough in Tayvallich on the green on the left near the big tree as you enter the village. Other honesty boxes are dotted around outside private houses and are well worth investigating, selling all sorts of treats including eggs, jams and marmalades and even home-made cakes.

FOOD SHOPPING

Lochgilphead is our nearest town – ten minutes’ drive from the lodges. The best supermarket is the Co-Op – there is a Tesco Express at the garage on the way out of Lochgilphead but it’s not as good as the Co-Op. Good selection of wine and beers. Also well worth taking your time and shopping in Lochgilphead. We have an excellent butcher’s, Ferguson’s, who are very knowledgeable about meat and a great wet fish shop, Murray’s. Marmalade Deli has all the top-of-the-range food you would expect from a deli and excellent cheese as well as serving good coffee. Ferguson’s also sells fresh vegetables. If you’re in a hurry the Riverside garage on the way in to Lochgilphead has a good selection of food and meats and is open late. Also stocks wood and charcoal. For the freshest seafood worth taking a trip to Neil Prentice in Tarbert. Drive past the harbour and keep heading to the little ferry terminal to Portavadie. Here you will see a white building – this is Prentice’s. Tanks with live prawns, scallops and lobster. Open Mon – Friday.

TAKEAWAYS : In Lochgilphead there is an Indian takeaway, Taj Mahal, which is opposite the police station on the road out of Lochilphead. You can order over the phone ( 01546 606296) or wait and queue. Fairly standard Indian fare and you can eat in too, which is a bit like eating in someone’s front room. Open all week 5pm to 10pm except Wednesdays. The Chinese just further on, Lee Garden, is OK – open all week but Tuesdays, 4.30 to 10pm 01546 602562. For fish and chips there is the Argyll Café on the main street, open 11.30 to 2pm or 5 – 9pm, shut on Sunday and Monday. For takeaway sandwiches definitely The Square Peg at the end of the main street, lovely homemade sandwiches, fresh coffee and cake. Open every day 9am to about 5pm except Sunday.

HOMEMADE READY MEALS: Janie at The Secret Baker does a delicious selection of ready meals including lasagne and quiches, as well as grazing boxes, breakfast hampers and even sushi!  Highly recommended and she is just around the corner from the lodges.  Contact her on The Secret Baker on Facebook and through Facebook messenger.