The claim
On the shore of Loch Eck in Cowal, the Coylet is a former coaching inn said to date from the 1650s. It has a public bar with a fireplace, a lounge and restaurant, a few letting rooms and its own jetty. Its best-known resident is 'the Blue Boy', the ghost of a child said to have drowned in the loch centuries ago.
What the records show
The 1650s comes from the press: the Scotsman's round-up of Scotland's oldest pubs says the inn dates back to the 1650s, when it was a coaching inn, and a trade report and the 2024 sale particulars call it 17th-century. The inn's own site gives no date. The Geological Survey's memoir on Cowal names the Coylet Inn on the east shore of Loch Eck in 1897, which fixes an inn of that name here by then. The national designations have now been searched around the house and hold nothing within two hundred metres of it, so no register dates this fabric and the 17th century rests on the press and the sale particulars. It was on the market in 2024 while still trading.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1650 | Claimed founding | The press |
| 1897 | First record of a drinking house here | The Geological Survey's memoir on Cowal, 1897 |
What to look for inside
- Reputedly haunted by 'the Blue Boy'
- Lochside setting with private beach and jetty
Visiting
The Coylet Inn is in Loch Eck, Scotland, at Loch Eck, Dunoon, Argyll PA23 8SG. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- sltn.co.uk/2024/07/01/spectacular-and-spooky-on-the-shores-of-loch-eck-in-argyll/
- www.cclproperty.com/property-for-sale/coylet-inn-loch-eck-dunoon-argyll-and-bute
- foodanddrink.scotsman.com/drink/the-oldest-pubs-in-scotland/
- archive.org/details/geologyofcowalin00gunnrich
- inspire.hes.scot/arcgis/rest/services/HES/HES_Designations/MapServer/0/query?where=1%3D1&geometry=-4.98693%2C56.05226%2C-4.98049%2C56.05586&geometryType=esriGeometryEnvelope&inSR=4326&spatialRel=esriSpatialRelIntersects&outFields=DES_REF%2CDES_TITLE%2CCATEGORY&returnGeometry=false&f=html
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/1300462
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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