Loch Alsh

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Loch Alsh
Skyebridge.jpg
The Kyle (narrows) of Loch Alsh and the Skye Bridge
Scotland relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Loch Alsh
LocationWester Ross, Highland Region, Scotland
Coordinates 57°16′N5°40′W / 57.27°N 5.66°W / 57.27; -5.66
Lake type Sea loch
Primary inflows Loch Long (Highlands), Loch Duich
Primary outflows Inner Sound, Scotland
Basin  countriesScotland
Max. length12 km (7.5 mi)
Max. width2.5 km (1.6 mi)
Surface elevation0 m (0 ft)
Settlements Kyle of Lochalsh, Ardelve, Balmacara

Loch Alsh (Scottish Gaelic : Loch Aillse, "foaming lake" [1] ) is a sea inlet between the isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides and the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The name is also used to describe the surrounding country and the feudal holdings around the loch. The area is rich in history, and is increasingly popular with tourists.

Contents

The hilly country around Loch Alsh has a temperate, well-watered climate. There is some pasture and woodland, but much of the area is moorland. The rocks are ancient Precambrian Gneiss, some of the oldest in the world, much eroded.

Location

Sketch map of area Lochalsh.jpg
Sketch map of area

The loch runs inland about 12 kilometres (7+1⁄2 miles) from Kyle of Lochalsh to Ardelve. From there Loch Duich continues southeast another 10 km (6 mi) to Shiel Bridge while Loch Long runs deeper into the mountains to the northeast. A narrow strait from the south of Loch Alsh leads to the Sound of Sleat that separates the Isle of Skye from the mainland. The loch is overlooked by Sgurr na Coinnich, which rises to 739 metres (2,425 ft) on Skye. The mainland hills to the north reach 452 m (1,483 ft) at the summit of Auchtertyre Hill and 344 m (1,129 ft) on Sgurr Mor but are generally lower and slope gradually down to the west. [2]

The ancient stronghold of Inverness is 50 mi (80 km) directly to the east over the Northwest Highlands.

The climate is temperate. Annual rainfall is around 2,300 mm (91 in) per year and temperatures range from 0–7 °C (32–45 °F) in January to 10–18 °C (50–64 °F) in July and August. On any given day of the year rain is more likely than not. [3] Much of the countryside is moorland or pasture but there are lowland areas of deciduous forest with native birchwoods and oakwoods and some conifer plantations. [4] At one time the forest would have been more extensive, but the early inhabitants converted parts of it to crofts (small farms) and when the Highland Clearances destroyed the crofts the land was kept as pasture. [5]

The loch witnessed the last invasion on the UK by Spanish forces in 1719. [6]

Geology

The loch lies between hills just east of the Moine Thrust Belt, an unusual geological structure that runs from the Sleat peninsula in Skye on a northeast diagonal to Loch Eriboll on the north coast of Scotland. [7] In this area, geologists found in 1907 that younger rocks from the west lay below the older rocks of the east, a discovery that helped lead to the modern theory of mountain building. The Lewisian gneisses around Loch Alsh were formed in the Precambrian period, about 2,800 million years ago, while the volcanic rocks, gabbro and granite that make up most of Skye, and that in some places lie under the older gneisses, are just 55 million years old. [8] The ancient metamorphic rocks around Loch Alsh have been heavily eroded over the years, most recently by a series of ice ages. [9]

Fauna

A flame shell taken in Scotland Flame Shell - Scotland.jpg
A flame shell taken in Scotland

In 2012, a large colony of flame shells was discovered in the loch following a Marine Scotland commissioned survey, carried out by Heriot-Watt University. The reef is thought to consist of over 100 million flame shells covering 75 hectares (190 acres), making it the largest known reef of its kind in the UK. [10] [11] In order to protect the flame shell beds the loch has since 2014 formed part of a Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area (NCMPA). [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross, Scotland</span> Traditional region of Scotland

Ross is a region of Scotland. One of the provinces of Scotland from the 9th century, it gave its name to a later earldom and to the counties of Ross-shire and, later, Ross and Cromarty. The name Ross allegedly derives from a Gaelic word meaning "headland", perhaps a reference to the Black Isle. Another possible origin is the West Norse word for Orkney – Hrossey – meaning horse island; the area once belonged to the Norwegian earldom of Orkney. Ross is a historical comital region, perhaps predating the Mormaerdom of Ross. It is also a region used by the Kirk, with the Presbytery of Ross being part of the Synod of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A87 road</span> Major road through the Highland region of Scotland

The A87 is a major road in the Highland region of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyle of Lochalsh</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Kyle of Lochalsh is a village in the historic county of Ross & Cromarty on the northwest coast of Scotland, located around 55 miles (90 km) west-southwest of Inverness. It is located on the Lochalsh peninsula, at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye. A ferry used to connect the two villages until it was replaced by the Skye Bridge, about a mile (2 km) to the west, in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenelg, Highland</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Glenelg is a scattered community area and civil parish in the Lochalsh area of Highland in western Scotland. Despite the local government reorganisation the area is considered by many still to be in Inverness-shire, the boundary with Ross-shire being at the top of Mam Ratagan the single-track road entry into Glenelg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moine Thrust Belt</span> Fault in Highland, Scotland, UK

The Moine Thrust Belt or Moine Thrust Zone is a linear tectonic feature in the Scottish Highlands which runs from Loch Eriboll on the north coast 190 kilometres (120 mi) south-west to the Sleat peninsula on the Isle of Skye. The thrust belt consists of a series of thrust faults that branch off the Moine Thrust itself. Topographically, the belt marks a change from rugged, terraced mountains with steep sides sculptured from weathered igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks in the west to an extensive landscape of rolling hills over a metamorphic rock base to the east. Mountains within the belt display complexly folded and faulted layers and the width of the main part of the zone varies up to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi), although it is significantly wider on Skye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wester Ross</span> Area in the North West Highlands of Scotland

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loch Duich</span>

Loch Duich is a sea loch situated on the western coast of Scotland, in the Highlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torridon Group</span>

In geology, the term Torridonian is the informal name for the Torridon Group, a series of Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic arenaceous and argillaceous sedimentary rocks, which occur extensively in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The strata of the Torridonian Group are particularly well exposed in the district of upper Loch Torridon, a circumstance which suggested the name Torridon Sandstone, first applied to these rocks by James Nicol. Stratigraphically, they lie unconformably on gneisses of the Lewisian complex and their outcrop extent is restricted to the Hebridean Terrane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarskavaig</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Tarskavaig is a crofting village on the west coast of Sleat on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It sits in a glen which meets Tarskavaig Bay and lies opposite the Isles of Eigg, Rum and Canna. It is often said that Tarskavaig has the best view of the Cuillin in Skye.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kintail</span> Mountainous area in the Scottish highlands

Kintail is a mountainous area sitting at the head of Loch Duich in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland, located in the Highland Council area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ardelve</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Ardelve is a village in Highland, Scotland, on Loch Alsh. It overlooks the Eilean Donan Castle, which is in Dornie, also on Loch Alsh, to the east of Skye. A caravan park, several guest houses, a bakery, and pizzeria are located within Ardelve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glen Shiel</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Glen Shiel is a glen in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isle of Skye</span> Island of the Inner Hebrides, Scotland

The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. Although Sgitheanach has been suggested to describe a winged shape, no definitive agreement exists as to the name's origins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moine Supergroup</span> Supergroup in Highland, Scotland, UK

The Moine Supergroup is a sequence of Neoproterozoic metamorphic rocks that form the dominant outcrop of the Scottish Highlands between the Moine Thrust Belt to the northwest and the Great Glen Fault to the southeast. The sequence is metasedimentary in nature and was metamorphosed and deformed in a series of tectonic events during the Late Proterozoic and Early Paleozoic. It takes its name from A' Mhòine, a peat bog in northern Sutherland.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hebridean Terrane</span> Part of the Caledonian orogenic belt in northwest Scotland

The Hebridean Terrane is one of the terranes that form part of the Caledonian orogenic belt in northwest Scotland. Its boundary with the neighbouring Northern Highland Terrane is formed by the Moine Thrust Belt. The basement is formed by Archaean and Paleoproterozoic gneisses of the Lewisian complex, unconformably overlain by the Neoproterozoic Torridonian sediments, which in turn are unconformably overlain by a sequence of Cambro–Ordovician sediments. It formed part of the Laurentian foreland during the Caledonian continental collision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of the Isle of Skye</span>

The geology of the Isle of Skye in Scotland is highly varied and the island's landscape reflects changes in the underlying nature of the rocks. A wide range of rock types are exposed on the island, sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous, ranging in age from the Archaean through to the Quaternary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lochalsh</span> Scottish parish in Highland, Scotland, UK

Lochalsh is a district of mainland Scotland that is currently part of the Highland council area. The Lochalsh district covers all of the mainland either side of Loch Alsh - and of Loch Duich - between Loch Carron and Loch Hourn, ie. from Stromeferry in the north on Loch Carron down to Corran on Loch Hourn and as (south-)west as Kintail. It was sometimes more narrowly defined as just being the hilly peninsula that lies between Loch Carron and Loch Alsh. The main settlement is Kyle of Lochalsh, located at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the adjacent island of Skye. A ferry used to connect the two settlements but was replaced by the Skye Bridge in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erbusaig Bay</span> Bay in Ross and Cromarty, Scotland

Erbusaig Bay is a remote coastal embayment, on a 266° orientation, located on the west coast of the Lochalsh peninsula, in Ross and Cromarty in Scottish Highlands in the west coast of Scotland. At the western side of Erbusaig Bay is the small township of Erbusaig.

References

  1. ↑ "Placename Gazetter" [ permanent dead link ] Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba. Retrieved 24 August 2010
  2. ↑ Loch Alsh, Glen Shiel and Loch Hourn, Ordnance Survey, 2007, ISBN   978-0-319-22991-0
  3. ↑ "Kinlochewe 1971–2000 averages" Archived 19 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine Met Office. Retrieved 23 November 2008
  4. ↑ "Balmacara" Forestry Commission. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  5. ↑ "Lochalsh & The Isle of Skye Tourist Guide" www.lochalsh.co.uk Retrieved 23 November 2008
  6. ↑ Copping, Jasper (29 July 2013). "Enemies at the gates: The 73 'invasions' of Britain since 1066".
  7. ↑ Moine Thrust Belt – general information University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment. Retrieved 24 November 2008
  8. ↑ Rayner, Dorothy H. (1981), The stratigraphy of the British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN   978-0-521-29961-9
  9. ↑ "Minerals from Skye: Geology" [ permanent dead link ] www.volcanicscotland.com. Retrieved 23 November 2008
  10. ↑ "Flame shell reef discovery". Marine Scotland. 27 December 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  11. ↑ "Marine Scotland survey uncovers 'huge' flame shell bed". BBC News. 26 December 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  12. ↑ "Lochs Duich, Long and Alsh MPA(NC)". NatureScot. Retrieved 11 October 2020.

Further reading

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