Mire Loch

Mire Loch is a man made freshwater loch situated on St Abb's Head in the Scottish Borders, just over a kilometre NW of the village of St. Abbs at grid reference NT912687. The loch lies on land owned by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) and is approximately 600 metres long by 50 metres at its widest point.

History

Mire Loch was originally an area of marshy land within the St. Abbs Head Fault. The fault separated the hard volcanic rocks of St. Abbs Head from the softer sedimentary rocks of the mainland. The glacial channel which follows the fault is marked by a distinctive inland valley across the Head which was fed by rainwater from the high ground on both sides and formed a boggy area which drained into the sea.

Around the year 1900 it was decided to turn the boggy area into a recreation area. A dam was built to form a freshwater loch to be used for angling and waterfowl hunting, a nine-hole golf course was also constructed nearby. The use of the golf course was discontinued many years ago although there is some visible evidence of the old greens and tees. A boat house was built on the loch and this too has fallen into disrepair with most of the roof timbers now missing.

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: