Loch

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Loch

A loch (usually Lough
Lough

A lough is a body of water and is either:* A lake.* A sea lough, which may be a fjord, estuary, bay, or sea inlet.It can also be used as a surname, with various pronunciations: law, loch, low, lowe, loth, loff....
as a name element outside Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
) is a body of water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
which is either:

Sea-inlet lochs are often called sea lochs.

name for a body of water is Gaelic

Goidelic languages

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Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
) is a body of water

Water

a lake
Lake

A lake is a terrain feature , a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin and moves slowly if it moves at all....
or;
a sea inlet
Inlet

An inlet is a narrow body of water between islands or leading inland from a larger body of water, often leading to an enclosed body of water, such as a Sound , bay , lagoon or marsh....
, which may be also a firth
Firth

Firth is the Scots language word used to denote various coastal waters in Scotland. It is usually a large sea bay, which may be part of an estuary, or just an inlet, or even a strait....
, fjord
Fjord

Geologically, a fjord or fiord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by Glacier....
, estuary
Estuary

An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
or bay
Bay

A bay is an area of water bordered by land on three sides. Bays generally have calm waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some ocean surface wave and often reducing winds....
.

Sea-inlet lochs are often called sea lochs.

Background

This name for a body of water is Gaelic

Goidelic languages

The Goidelic languages, , historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland, through the Isle of Man, to the north of Scotland....
in origin and is applied to most lakes in Scotland and to many sea inlets in the west and north of Scotland. For a list, see List of lochs in Scotland
List of lochs in Scotland

The following is a list of lochs in Scotland. Loch is a Scottish Gaelic word for a lake or fiord, cognate with the Irish Gaelic lough, which has been borrowed by Scots and Scottish English to apply to such bodies of water, especially those located in Scotland....
.

As a name element Loch has become Lough for many bodies of water in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
and for some in the north of England

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. However, reference to the latter as lochs or loughs (lower case initial), rather than as lakes, inlets and so on, is unusual. For lists, see List of Irish loughs
List of Irish loughs

This article is a list of loughs on the island of Ireland. The word lough comes from the Old Irish loch, meaning lake.The list below contains only those loughs that are of geographic, geological or historical importance....
and List of English loughs
List of English loughs

The following is a list of loughs that can be found in England. The term is not commonly used, but when it is, is often pronounced "luff". In many cases, "loughs" have been renamed, and the bodies of water are generally quite small, e.g....
.

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 lochán).

Perhaps the most famous Scottish loch is Loch Ness

Loch Ness

Loch Ness is a large, deep, freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately 37 km southwest of Inverness. Its surface is 15.8 metres above sea level....
, although there are other large examples such as Loch Awe

Loch Awe

Loch Awe is a large body of water in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It has also given its name to a village on its banks, variously known as Loch Awe, or Lochawe....
, Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond , is a freshwater Scotland loch, lying on the Highland Boundary Fault. It is the largest lake in mainland Britain, by surface area, and contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh water island in the British Isles....
and Loch Tay

Loch Tay

Loch Tay is a freshwater loch in the central Scottish Highlands of Scotland, in the district of Perthshire.It is a long narrow loch of around 14 miles long, and typically around 1 to 1 1/2 miles wide, following the line of the valley from the south west to north east....
.

Examples of sea lochs in Scotland include Loch Long

Loch Long

Loch Long is a body of water in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The loch extends from the Firth of Clyde at its southwestern end. It measures approximately 20 miles in length, with a width of between one and two miles....
, Loch Fyne

Loch Fyne

Loch Fyne is a sea loch on the west coast of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It extends 65 kilometres inland from the Sound of Bute, making it the longest of the sea lochs....
, Loch Linnhe

Loch Linnhe

Loch Linnhe is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland.Loch Linnhe is long, and an average of wide. It opens onto the Firth of Lorne at its south-western end, by Loch Leven ....
, Loch Eriboll

Loch Eriboll

Loch Eriboll is a 16km long sea loch on the north coast of Scotland, which has been used for centuries as a deep water anchorage as it is safe from the often stormy seas of Cape Wrath and the Pentland Firth....
, Loch Tristan, Trisloch.

The uses of lochs

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

Loch Laggan

Loch Laggan is a freshwater loch situated east of Fort William, Highland, in Lochaber, Scottish Highlands, Scotland. The A86 road from Spean Bridge to Kingussie follows along its north bank....
and Treig

Loch Treig

Loch Treig is a 9 km freshwater loch situated in a steep-sided glen 20 km east of Fort William, Scotland, in Lochaber, Highland , Scotland. While there are no roads alongside the loch, the West Highland Line follows its eastern bank....
(which form part of the Lochaber

Lochaber

Lochaber is one of the 16 ward management areas of the Highland Council of Scotland and one of eight former Local government of Scotland districts of the two-tier Highland Regions of Scotland....
hydroelectric scheme near Fort William). Other expanses are simply called reservoirs, eg: Blackwater Reservoir

Blackwater Reservoir

The Blackwater Reservoir is a reservoir created behind a dam in the mountains above Kinlochleven, Lochaber, Scottish Highlands, Scotland. At over 914 m long, the dam is the longest in the Highlands....
above Kinlochleven

Kinlochleven

Kinlochleven is a village in Lochaber, Scottish Highlands, Scotland and lies at the eastern end of Loch Leven , a sea loch cutting into the western Scottish Highlands....
.

Scottish lakes

Scotland has very few natural water bodies actually called 'lakes'. The Lake of Menteith

Lake of Menteith

The Lake of Menteith , or, until the 20th century, the Loch of Menteith, is a loch in Scotland, located on the Flanders Moss, the flood plain of the upper reaches of the rivers River Forth and River Teith, upstream of Stirling....
, an Anglicisation

Anglicisation

Anglicisation or anglicization is a process of conversion of verbal or written elements of any other language into a more comprehensible English language for an English speaker....
of the Scots

Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
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

Lake of the Hirsel

The Lake of the Hirsel or Hirsel Lake is an artificial body of water near Coldstream in Berwickshire in Scotland. It is set in the grounds of The Hirsel, home of the Home family and of the late Sir Alec Douglas-Home....
, Pressmennan Lake

Pressmennan Lake

Pressmennan Lake is a lake in East Lothian in Scotland.It is an artificial reservoir constructed in 1819. It lies in a gully in the Lammermuir Hills, above the village of Stenton in East Lothian....
and Lake Louise, (In the grounds of Skibo Castle

Skibo Castle

Skibo Castle is located to the west of Dornoch in Sutherland, Highland , Scotland, UK overlooking the Dornoch Firth. Although the castle dates back to the 12th century, the present structure is largely of the 19th century, and early 20th century, when it was the home of industrialist Andrew Carnegie....
), are other bodies of water in Scotland which are called lakes and all are man-made. Most Scots will be quick to correct anyone who refers to "lochs" as "lakes".

The word "loch" is used as a shibboleth

Shibboleth

Shibboleth is any distinguishing practice which is indicative of one's social or regional origin.It usually refers to features of language, and particularly to a word whose pronunciation identifies its speaker as being a member or not a member of a particular group....
to identify natives of England, because the hard "ch" sound is used in Scotland whereas most English people pronounce the word like "lock".

Lochs beyond Scotland and Ireland

As "loch" is a common Gaelic word, it is also found as the root of several Manx

Manx language

Manx , also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic languages spoken on the Isle of Man. The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974, but in recent years it has been the subject of language revival efforts, and it is now the medium of education at the , a primary school for four- to eleven-year-olds in St....
placenames.

The United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
naval port of Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is a harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu, Hawaii. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base....
, located on the south coast of the main Hawaii

Hawaii

File:Pahoehoe and Aa flows at Hawaii.jpgThe State of Hawaii is a U.S. state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia....
an island of Oahu

Oahu

'Oahu' or 'Oahu' , known as Gathering_place#Island_of_O.7B.7Bokina.7D.7Dahu_as_The_Gathering_Place, is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the State of Hawaii....
, is one of a complex of sea inlets. Several of these are named as lochs, viz. South East Loch, Merry Loch, East Loch, Middle Loch and West Loch.

Brenton Loch

Brenton Loch

Brenton Loch is an inlet-cum-small fjord in the Falkland Islands. It is one of a handful of so-called Loch outside Scotland. It is sometimes known as "Brenton Sound"....
in the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located from the coast of Argentina, west of the Shag Rocks , and north of the British Antarctic Territory ....
is a sea loch, near Lafonia

Lafonia

Lafonia is a peninsula forming the southern part of East Falkland, the largest of the Falkland Islands....
, East Falkland

East Falkland

East Falkland the largest of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, has an area of 6,605 square kilometres . Its population represents a large majority of the population of the Falklands....
.

Loch

Background

The uses of lochs

Scottish lakes

Lochs beyond Scotland and Ireland

See also

External links