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It is perhaps interesting to note that at the time many houses were built (such as the aforementioned) communications were better by water than road and some of the more wealthy owners had both their own impressive piers and steam launches in which retained staff ferried them down sedately from the railway station at Lochawe Village.

The Victorian era was not surprisingly the heyday of the steamers. From 1895 to 1918 T.S.S. Caledonia was one of several of the public steam passenger ferries which plied their trade on the Loch between Lochawe and Ford over several decades. There were several principal stop off points which included North ( Taychreggan ) and South (Port Sonachan) Ports, an important crossing communications-wise over the years being at the narrowest part of the main body of the Loch.

Two other famous vessels were operated by Mr. Duncan Fraser of Lochawe Hotel, namely “The Countess of Breadalbane”( 1882 to 1922 ) which was of considerable proportions at 99 feet in length, painted white and with elegant lines. The “Growley” saw service from 1900 to 1936, was considerably smaller at 55 feet, but also had a black and yellow funnel. The writer stumbled across wheelhouse of the former in the early 1990s being used as a garden shed at a since demolished house in Soroba Road, Oban! It is now fortunately in someone’s safe keeping elsewhere. The last steamer passenger service seems to have ceased as late as 1952.

The previously mentioned Achnacarron House was one of the lochside residences to boast not just one privately owned vessel but two. The principal vessel was “Bumble Bee”, a most elegant 45 foot white-painted steam launch with clipper-type bow, bowsprit and gilded carved bumble bee as a figurehead. The other boat was the “Sandpiper”, a varnished mahogany petrol launch 18 feet long used when it became un-economical to pay for Bumble Bees stoker and the coal for short journeys. In recent years a steam presence has been re-established on the Loch in the classy form of “Gertrude Matilda”, who started her life as the petrol/paraffin powered “Water Lilly” based on Lake Windermere. She was converted to steam in 1986 and in carefully restored condition runs trips from Lochawe pier to Kilchurn Castle and the islands during the summer months.