Balloch
West Dunbartonshire

Situated immediately north of Alexandria and 5 miles (8 km) north of Dumbarton in West Dunbartonshire, the village of Balloch lies at the south end of Loch Lomond on the east bank of the River Leven. The Earls of Lennox built a castle here in 1238 and Balloch became a small ferry port. Following the development of the textile industry in the Vale of Leven in the early 19th century, the castle was rebuilt by the textile magnate John Stirling. Renamed Tullichewan Castle, it stood in a large park that is now Balloch Castle Country Park. In 1816 David Napier's Marion was the first pleasure steamer to operate on Loch Lomond from Balloch and in 1850 Balloch Pier was the terminus of a railway from Dumbarton. Balloch flourished in association with the development of tourism and is today a focal point for leisure craft and the location of the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Gateway Centre at Loch Lomond Shores. A boat yard lies on the site of MacArthur's Loch Lomond Radium Works, one of the first such plants in the UK which was established in 1915 to supply radium for medical purposes and luminous paint. It closed in 1928. Nearby is Balloch Castle (19th-century) and Balloch Castle Country Park.

A library was established on Carrochan Road in 1974.

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