From the mainland at the Balmaha pier, this is one of the most accessible of Loch Lomond’s islands. It has many spellings - Inis-Cailleach and Inchcailleach among them.

In 717 AD three Irish Christian missionaries arrived in Scotland. They were St Kentigerna, (mother of St Fillan), and her brother and son. The old woman settled on the island, which because of her became known as Inchcailloch or 'The Island of the Woman'. In the 12th or 13th century a church was built and dedicated to her memory. To this church for 500 years, from the twelfth to the seventeenth century, the people of the mainland parish, now known as Buchanan and then called Inchcailloch, rowed across to their Sunday worship, and here also they buried their dead. In 1670 the church on Inchcailloch was finally abandoned, but the graveyard continued to be used, the last burial being in 1947.

Situated about a quarter of a mile above the landing place opposite Balmaha pier, the foundations of the church are still visible, and many gravestones from more recent times are still legible.

Inchcailloch was a burying place of the MacGregor and MacFarlane clans. One of the grave stones is Gregor MacGregor 1623, clan chief and an uncle of Rob Roy MacGregor.

The remains of the houses of the original inhabitants can be found on the north-west side of the island, near to the shore. The farm lease was last renewed before 1800 so farming was probably abandoned about then. It is now owned by Scottish Natural Heritage.