Loch Enoch
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox body of water
| name = Loch Enoch
| image =Loch enoch panorama.jpg
| caption = With Corserine, Dungeon Hill and Craignaw in the background
| image_bathymetry =
| caption_bathymetry =
|pushpin_map=Scotland Dumfries and Galloway
| location = Galloway
| coords = {{coord|55|08|10|N|4|26|20|W|region:GB_type:waterbody|display=inline,title}}
| type = Loch
| inflow =
| outflow = Eglin Lane
| catchment = {{convert|186|ha|abbr=on}}
| basin_countries = Scotland
| length =
| width =
| area = {{convert|50|ha|abbr=on}}
| depth =
| max-depth = ~{{convert|36|m|abbr=on}}
| volume =
| residence_time =
| shore =
| elevation = {{convert|493|m|abbr=on}}
| islands =
}}
File:Loch Enoch from the slopes of Mullwharchar - geograph.org.uk - 144547.jpg]]
Loch Enoch is a multi-basin freshwater loch in Galloway, to the east of Merrick and south of Mullwharchar. The loch is situated in a granite basin and has several small islands and some beaches on its shore. The sharp granite sand of these beaches was collected and sold for sharpening knives and scythes.{{cite journal |last=Barratt |first=Edward |url=http://www.climbmagazine.com/WritingCompetitionCroftontheFlowe.aspx |title='The Croft on the Flowe' |accessdate=24 June 2008 |journal=Climb Magazine |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723231228/http://www.climbmagazine.com/WritingCompetitionCroftontheFlowe.aspx |archivedate=23 July 2008 }} The catchment area's vegetation is mainly Purple Moor Grass and Heather.
The loch's outflow supplies Loch Doon and the River Doon, both in Ayrshire.
Acidification
By 1800 the water of Loch Enoch had already become acidic.{{cite web |url=http://www.lifesciences.napier.ac.uk/wmfiles/acidweb/history.htm |title=Freshwater Acidification and 'Acid Rain' |accessdate=24 June 2008 |work=Lecture Notes for MSc Aquatic Ecosystems Management, Freshwater Ecosystems Module |author=Dr John Kinross |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304034521/http://www.lifesciences.napier.ac.uk/wmfiles/acidweb/HISTORY.HTM |archivedate=4 March 2008 }} J. McBain in his 1929 book The Merrick and the Neighbouring Hills. Tramps by Hill, Stream and Loch describes a trout that 'bore the unmistakable marks of a Loch Enoch trout, i.e. it was minus the lower half of its tail and part of its ventral fins'.{{cite web |url=http://www.gla.ac.uk/medicalgenetics/suplands.htm |title=The Southern Uplands of Scotland |accessdate=24 June 2008 |work=Scottish Mountain Photo Gallery |date=5 June 2004 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040715054825/http://www.gla.ac.uk/medicalgenetics/suplands.htm |archivedate=15 July 2004}} McBain writes that the last recorded trout caught was in 1899.
Since 1940 the loch became more acidic due to industrial emissions and in the 1950s it completely lost its fish population.{{cite journal |jstor=635210 |title=The Acidification of Scottish Lochs|journal=The Geographical Journal |year=1989 |author=Richard W. Battarbee |volume=155 |issue=3|pages=353–360 |doi=10.2307/635210}} In 1994 it was restocked with 3000 trout. The loch has not become more acidic since the mid-1970s and has become slightly less acidic from the 1980s onwards, with the pH increasing slowly from around 4.3 in 1978 to 4.9 in 2003.{{cite web |url=http://www.marlab.ac.uk/FRS.Web/Uploads/Documents/FW16Recovery.pdf |title=Recovery from Acid Rain Gives Hope to Scottish Upland Salmonid Populations |accessdate=25 June 2008 |work=Fisheries Research Services |date=16 August 2004}}{{dead link|date=January 2014}} Between 1983 and 2003 the loch's DOC levels increased.{{cite web |url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/1063/0055432.pdf |title=Freshwater Environment Group |accessdate=28 June 2008 |publisher=Fisheries Research Services}}
Water analysis
| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Concentrations of different elements in samples from June 2006{{cite web |url=http://www.marlab.ac.uk/FRS.Web/Uploads/Documents/IR1207.pdf |title=FRS method for the determination of trace metals (including rare earth elements) in freshwater samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry |accessdate=28 June 2008 |last1=Robinson |first1=Craig D. |last2=Charles |first2=Sylvie |last3=Malcolm |first3=Iain A. |last4=Devalla |first4=Sandhya |date=May 2007 |publisher=Fisheries Research Services}} |
| Element
! Concentration μg/L |
|---|
| CaCO3
| −500 |
| Li
| 0.297 |
| Al
| 83.9 |
| V
| 0.263 |
| Cr
| 0.147 |
| Fe
| 49.3 |
| Fe DRC
| 46.4 |
| Mn
| 6.7 |
| Co
| 0.064 |
| Ni
| 0.348 |
| Cu
| 0.247 |
| Zn
| 3.14 |
| Se
| 0.178 |
It is considered relatively oligotrophic.{{cite web|url=https://www.gsabiosphere.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2.7-Oligotrophic-Lochs-301215.pdf|website=Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere|title=Oligotrophic lochs|accessdate=23 March 2025}}
References
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