Dunoon Squadron 14 during the Cold War. The Cowal Highland Gathering attracts contestants and spectators from all over the world. It is held annually over the final weekend in August at Dunoon Stadium. Cowal Open Studios, held over a fortnight in September, gives the opportunity to visit the studios of artists around Dunoon and Cowal. Cowalfest, celebrates the outdoors activities like rambling around Dunoon for ten days in October. Since the 1930s Dunoon has hosted the Royal National Mòd a number of times - 1930, 1950, 1968, 1994, 2000, 2006 and 2012. In 2013, the first Dunoon Film Festival was held
Lake Cowal by various Australian environmentalist groups who formed the "Coalition to Protect Lake Cowal" initiated by the Rainforest Information Centre and Friends of the Earth Australia. The only barrier between the lake and the open pit would be an earth wall or bund. Tailings would be stored in dams 3.5 km from the lake. Water would be supplied from a bore in the Bland Creek Paleochannel borefield, 20 km east of the mine site and will use up to 17 megalitres per day. " Don't desecrate our dreaming site, don't mine our sacred site. I have fought Barrick in the courts