Loch Oich

Loch Oich (/ˌlɒx ˈɔɪx/; Scottish Gaelic: Loch Omhaich) is a freshwater loch in the Highlands of Scotland which forms part of the Caledonian Canal, of which it is the highest point. This narrow loch lies between Loch Ness (to the Northeast) and Loch Lochy (to the Southwest) in the Great Glen. It is fed by the River Garry (from Loch Garry) from the West, and feeds the River Oich from its North end. The Laggan locks separate it from Loch Lochy.

The Loch Oich wildlife is rich with a wide variety of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Every autumn the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) migrates from the sea using Loch Oich, Loch Lochy and Loch Ness as their spawning nests. After two years when the fingerling are up to 20 cm (8 in) long they migrate back to the sea where they grow rapidly and weigh from 3.5–17 kg (8–37 lb) after two years.

Thomas Telford artificially raised the level of the loch by many feet to provide a navigable channel for the Caledonian Canal.

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Loch

Loch (/ˈlɒx/), is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word for a lake and a sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and the Welsh word for lake, llwch.

In English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spelling lough is commonly found in place names, pronounced the same way as loch. In Scottish English, 'loch' is always used.

Some lochs could also be called firths, fjords, estuaries, straits or bays. Sea-inlet lochs are often called sea lochs or sea loughs

Background

This name for a body of water is Insular Celtic in origin and is applied to most lakes in Scotland and to many sea inlets in the west and north of Scotland. The word is Indo-European in origin; cf. Latin lacus.

Lowland Scots orthography, like Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Irish, represents /x/ with ch, so the word was borrowed with identical spelling.

English borrowed the word separately from a number of loughs in the previous Cumbric language areas of Northumbria and Cumbria. Earlier forms of English included the sound /x/ as ch (compare Scots bricht with English bright). However, by the time Scotland and England joined under a single parliament, English had lost the /x/ sound. This form was therefore used when the English settled Ireland. The Scots convention of using CH remained, hence the modern Scottish English loch.

Loch (surname)

Loch is the surname of a Scottish Lowlands family whose members have included:

Loch is also a German surname:

Loch (disambiguation)

Loch is the Scottish Gaelic and Irish word for a lake or a sea inlet.

Loch may also refer to: