Airthrey Loch is a sinuously-shaped artificial water body which provides a central focus to the campus of the University of Stirling, a mile (1.5km) southeast of Bridge of Allan. Extending to 9.5 ha (23 acres), it was created in the later 18th C. as part of a designed landscape surrounding Airthrey Castle. Today a small section of the loch to the south is split from the rest, but the whole continues to provide considerable amenity value to the university campus and is noted for its nesting wildfowl. It contains a small wooded island to the southeast.
The loch was once popular with curlers and ice skaters until an accident in 1901 which killed Frederick Pullar, who was noted for his bathymetric survey of Scottish lochs with Sir John Murray, together with the lady he was trying to rescue. Airthrey Castle Curling Club (founded 1878) have only used the loch once, in the cold winter of 1979, since this tragic event.
A high-level concrete footbridge was built across the loch in 1970, replacing an earlier bridge at the same location. This new bridge is now Category-C listed and was designed Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall and Partners, with its height allowing sailing boats to pass beneath. There is still has boat house on western shore.
