Loch Morar (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Mhòrair) is a freshwater loch in Morar, Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. It is the fifth-largest loch in Scotland, with a surface area of 26.7 km2 (10.3 sq mi) and the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles, with a maximum depth of 1,017 ft (310 m).
Loch Morar is of glacial origin with very steep sides and a length of 19 km (12 mi). It contains five sizeable islands.
The only road along the loch extends no more than four miles (6 km) along the north shore. Both sides of the loch were inhabited along their length as late as the early 12th century. Emigration and the introduction of sheep farming and sporting estates in place of the traditional cattle farming, led to the abandoment of all settlements on the south shore and of those on the north-east of Bracorina. Kinlochmorar, at the head of the loch, was last inhabited around 1920 and Swordland Lodge, at the midway point on the north shore and level with the deepest part of the loch, has been no more than a summer home since 1969.
In common with Loch Ness, occasional reports of large unidentified creatures in the loch's waters are made. The monster has been dubbed Morag by locals.
Loch Morar was once famous for its prolific salmon and sea trout runs, but in common with most other freshwater systems in north-west Scotland these fish have been largely eradicated, and in many cases unique genotypes are now extinct, due to biological pollution in the form of parasitic lice from sea cage salmon farms.
The Ministry of Supply Department of Atomic Energy built a station at Loch Morar in 1947.
Famous quotes containing the word loch:
“Oh, many a day have I made good ale in the glen,
That came not of stream, or malt, like the brewing of men;
My bed was the ground, my roof the greenwood above,
And the wealth that I sought, one far kind glance from my love.”
—Unknown. The Outlaw of Loch Lene (l. 1–4)