Lochgilphead residents panic as last bank faces closure

Maggie Dodd’s fear is not sentimental. At 84, she has banked with Bank of Scotland in Lochgilphead since 1976, and the branch’s closure has left her facing a 37.2-mile trip to Oban, almost an hour by road, for the nearest in-person alternative. She said the news left her distraught and unable to sleep, and she is wary of online banking because of scams and the risk of pressing the wrong thing.

That anxiety has spread beyond one customer. Dodd has teamed up with her 83-year-old friend Ina Callander to try banking at the local post office, while Karen McCurry, who runs the wellbeing centre Snowdrop Argyll, helped set up the buddy scheme. McCurry said people had approached her saying they were not sleeping because the bank was closing, a sign of how quickly a branch shutdown can become a social care issue in a town where older residents still depend on face-to-face support.

The pressure is not limited to pensioners. Adriano Pia, who runs the Argyll Café, said bank cards and cash machines are not always reliable, underscoring the fragility of payment systems in smaller towns where one outage can disrupt trade. Scott McBride, manager of the Community Shop, said losing the branch could make it harder for the charity to deposit takings every day and could force it to hold more cash on site, pushing up insurance costs.

Lloyds Banking Group, which owns Bank of Scotland, said the Lochgilphead branch on Poltalloch Street was no longer viable because most customers prefer to bank online. In its review, the bank said it had looked at how customers were using the branch and pointed to app, online and phone banking, plus other branches in the Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland family. It also said customers could use the Post Office, PayPoint locations and cash machines, and that it had contacted local representatives, the Post Office, the National Federation of Sub Postmasters, Citizens Advice Bureau and the Argyll and Bute Chamber of Commerce. The bank said customers were disappointed and that staff had held a digital support event and offered one-to-one help.

The closure fits a wider pattern across Scotland, where Which? has tracked branch losses since 2015 and says hundreds of branches have disappeared. Bank of Scotland said LINK completed a Cash Access Assessment in the area before the closure, and noted that since 18 September 2024 new rules have required assessments when branches shut or communities ask for a review. It also said Community Banker visits, Banking Hubs or Deposit Services may be set up nearby if needed. For Lochgilphead, the larger question is now national: whether essential financial services are quietly receding from rural Scotland while the people most dependent on them are left to adapt alone.