River Dionard

The hotel is able to offer guests access to the upper River Dionard via the Gualin Estate. The fishing consists of six beats rotating on a daily basis. The river has Loch Dionard at its head which is counted as beat six. While the system relies on good water levels, the loch always contains fish and can be tackled with confidence in the good boat provided.

The tactics employed on the loch should be the same as Loch Stack and anglers often use a single handed (or short double handed) rod with similar flies on the river.

The Strath itself and the river are beautiful with all beats offering a mixture of slow and fast water. It would however be fair to say that it is a traditional West Coast Scottish spate river and gives its best when it has rained hard.

Salmon and good sea trout can be found throughout the system with good catches made in the right water conditions.

Until recently anglers had to walk to the beats, often taking ponies with provisions for an overnight stay. The walk, to Loch Dionard in particular, is long and hard. In order to make this more pleasant a bothy was available in which the overnight stay was made. It was often the case that anglers cursed their good fortune, if they had made a good catch of salmon, when tackling the steep hill to Gualin Lodge.

Nowadays however, life is more leisurely with an Land Rover available at 9:30am every day to take guests to the beats via a very good estate road. Guests are collected at the end of the day at a time prearranged. For enquiries please contact the Gualin Estate.