Loch

:Please see also Lough

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A loch is a body of water which is either:

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• a lake or;
• a sea loch, which may be perceived also as a firth, fjord, estuary, bay or sea inlet.

This name for a body of water is Gaelic in origin and is applied to most lakes in Scotland and to many sea inlets in the west of Scotland. It is also applied to lakes and bays in Ireland. The anglicised form of loch in Ireland is lough.

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Although there is no strict size definition, a small loch is often known as a lochan (so spelled also in Scottish Gaelic; in Irish it is spelled loch?n).

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Perhaps the most famous Scottish loch is Loch Ness, although there are other large examples such as Loch Awe, Loch Lomond and Loch Tay. For a full list, see list of Scottish lochs.

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Examples of sea lochs in Scotland include Loch Long, Loch Fyne, Loch Linnhe, Loch Eriboll.

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Some new reservoirs for hydroelectric schemes have been given names faithful to the names for natural bodies of water - for example: the Loch Sloy scheme, and Lochs Laggan and Treig (which form part of the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme near Fort William). Other expanses are simply called reservoirs, eg: Blackwater Reservoir above Kinlochleven.

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Scotland has only one natural water body actually called a lake, the Lake of Menteith, an Anglicisation of the Scots Laich o Menteith meaning a low-lying bit of land in Menteith, and applied to the loch there because of the similarity of the sounds of the words laich and lake. The Lake of the Hirsel is a reservoir.

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Loch: Footnote ►



 

Gaelic: Gaelic as an adjective means "pertaining to the Gaels", whether to their language or their culture....

Scotland: :For other uses, see Scotland (disambiguation). See also British Isles (terminology)....

Ireland: :This page is about the island of Ireland. For the political territories on the island, see Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the History section below....




Loch related Images and Photos (experimental)

Loch Ness	Loch Corvisk	Loch Ness Monster	Loch Lomond c.1871
LMS Railway Loch Awe	Croft at Loch Droma	Castle Urquhart Overlooking Loch Ness Loch Ness United Kingdom	Steamer on Loch Lomond
Boatmen on Loch Katrine	By Loch Treachlan Glencoe Morning Mists 1907	Tarbet Isle on Loch Lomond Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park	Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster (DVD)