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Only the dip of a moat and mound remain of the original Balloch Castle on Loch Lomondside.
It was the ancient seat of the Earls of Lennox who built it around 1238, and lived there until the 14th Century when they abandoned it for a new castle nearby on Inchmurrin island.
In 1808, a castellated mansion was built on the hill to the north-east of the old castle using some of the stones from the original building.
What remains of the old castle site is now protected.
The mansion, also called Balloch Castle, was designed in the castle-gothic style by English architect Robert Lugar for the wealthy merchant and Glasgow banker John Buchanan of Ardoch.
Buchanan was responsible for laying out and landscaping the grounds which now make up part of the 200-acre Balloch Castle Country Park.
It comprises nature trails, woodland walks and some lochside walks that were once used , not only as legal drovers' roads, but by Highland cattle rustlers stealing from lowland farms.
Buchanan's house is now the visitor centre and base of the Countryside Ranger Service.
The park itself lies within a 170-square-mile parcel of land that constitutes Loch Lomond Regional Park, established to preserve the countryside, wildlife and traditional farming methods within the area.
The whole park has now been earmarked, along with the Trossachs and Loch Katrine - which has been the source of Glasgow's water supply since 1859 - to become Scotland's very first National Park.

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