Duddingston Loch

Duddingston Loch is a natural loch located in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, below Arthur's Seat. It is part of a nature reserve, being important for wildfowl, herons and the great crested grebe, as well as swans and ducks. It is the only natural loch in Edinburgh, and the largest in Holyrood Park.

Henry Raeburn's famous painting The Skating Minister is set on Duddingston Loch. The loch used to be a popular venue for skaters, with the Edinburgh Skating Club meeting there, but is now rarely sufficiently iced.

There are carp in the loch, allegedly reaching up to 20 pounds (9.1 kg) in size, as well as populations of roach, perch and pike.

In 1778, a hoard of fifty-three Late Bronze Age weapons was dredged from the loch; it is now held by the National Museum of Scotland.

References

Duddingston

Duddingston (Scots: Duddiston) is a former village in the east of Edinburgh, Scotland, next to Holyrood Park.

Origins and etymology

The estate wherein Duddingston Village now lies was first recorded in lands granted to the Abbot of Kelso Abbey by David I of Scotland between 1136–47, and is described as stretching from the Crag (from Craggenmarf, an old name for Arthur's Seat) to the Magdalene Bridge. This land grant included the settlement known by the name of Treverlen or Traverlin, in the western part of it; this being the oldest known name of the village and estates that eventually became known as Duddingston.

There are several possibilities exist for the etymology of "Treverlen".

All these names originate in the Celtic Brythonic languages, which pre-date the use of the Gaelic or Saxon tongues in Scotland, suggesting that they may go back to the time of some of the earliest settlements on Arthur's Seat. The last two names, in particular, fit well as a possible name for the Celtic crannog settlement which stood in the southernmost corner of Duddingston Loch.