Lochgoilhead
Lochgoilhead (Scottish Gaelic: Ceann Loch Goibhle) is a small village of some 300-400 people in the Scottish Highlands in Argyll, Scotland.
The main employment spheres include tourism, agriculture (mainly sheep farming), and forestry. There are two outdoor education centres in the village, The Lochgoilhead National Activity Centre and Ardroy Outdoor Education Centre. Tourism more than doubles the village population during the summer months. Two single-track roads both lead in and out of the village. It has a Post Office, village store, a medical and dental practice, two hotels, two pubs, and an inn.
BBC News correspondent Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in The Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants, spent many years in Lochgoilhead in his youth. The highlands above the village were used for the scene in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love in which Bond (played by Sean Connery) eliminated two villains in a helicopter by firing gunshots at them.[1] The 1985 Scottish movie Restless Natives also used Lochgoilhead to film a chase scene, as well as some roads just outside the village.
Location
It is situated at the head of Loch Goil, where the Goil river, which rises on nearby Ben Donich and Beinn an Lochain, flows into the loch (Scottish word for Lake). It is surrounded by mountains rising as high as 3,000 feet and is part of the Arrochar Alps. The village itself sits underneath the south side mountains of Glen Croe, where Beinn an Lochain, Stob an Eas, Ben Donich, and The Brack stand. For a few years now Lochgoilhead has been in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. The surrounding area has a mountainous, coastal, and forestry landscape.
A few miles north of Lochgoilhead, is a junction which on the left goes through Hell's Glen, Loch Fyne, Dunoon, Inverary, Lochawe, Oban, Tyndrum, Glencoe and Fort William. On the right it goes to Glen Croe, Loch Long, Arrochar and Tarbet, Loch Lomond, Glasgow and Crianlarich with the options of travelling to either Inverary and Lochawe, Oban and Fort William, Lochearnhead and Killin.
Community
Lochgoilhead has a democratically elected community council which meets on the last Monday of the month.[2]
References
Coordinates: 56°10′19″N 4°54′28″W / 56.17194°N 4.90778°W