Loch Morar

File:View from Druim a' Chuirn ridge - geograph.org.uk - 855761.jpg and Skye beyond that]]

Loch Morar is {{convert|18.8|km}} long, has a surface area of {{convert|26.7|km2|abbr=on}}, and is the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles with a maximum depth of {{convert|1017|ft|abbr=on|disp=flip}}.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKNnAAAAMAAJ |title=Lochaber: a historical guide |first=Paula |last=Martin |year=2005 |publisher=Birlinn |page=xix |isbn=978-1-84158-241-2}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cdqEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |title=The Landscape of Britain |first=Michael |last=Reed |page=21 |isbn=978-1-134-72804-6 |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge}} In 1910, John Murray and Laurence Pullar found it to have a mean depth of {{convert|284|ft|disp=flip}} and a total volume of {{convert|81482000000|ft3|km3|disp=flip}} during their survey of Scottish lochs.{{cite book |last1=John |first1=Murray |last2=Lawrence |first2=Pullar|title=Bathymetrical Survey of the Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland, 1897–1909 Lochs of the Morar Basin Volume II – Loch Osgaig|url=http://maps.nls.uk/bathymetric/text.cfm?cid=37374 |access-date= 25 June 2023|page=197}}{{PD-notice}} The bottom is deepened below the United Kingdom Continental Shelf, and until 1943, when a depth of {{convert|1063|ft|disp=flip}} was observed in the Inner Sound, it was believed to be the deepest water in the United Kingdom.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1080/00369224908735399 |title=Deep clefts in the inner sound of Raasay |journal=Scottish Geographical Magazine |volume=65 |pages=20–25 |year=1949 |last1=Robinson |first1=A. H. W.}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4RRaAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA58 |page=58 |title=The British Isles |year=2013 |first=Frederick |last=Mort |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-63281-3 |orig-year=1914}} The surface of the loch is {{convert|9|m}} above sea level.{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dyM2kv5r7-gC&pg=PA464 |title=The Biology of Loch Ness |journal=New Scientist |issue=1345 |pages=462–467 |date=17 February 1983 |volume=80 |issn=0262-4079 |first=Adrian |last=Shine |access-date=25 September 2020 |archive-date=3 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003043933/https://books.google.com/books?id=dyM2kv5r7-gC&pg=PA464#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=dead }}

The water of the loch is clear and oligotrophic, with a minimal intake of nutrients, making it a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).http://www.rafts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lochaber-Fisheries-Management-Plan.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}} The main inflow is the River Meoble on the southern side, which drains from Loch Beoraid, although there are three other major inflows at the eastern end of the loch and a stream draining a complex of lochans to the north-west of Loch Morar. The outflow is the River Morar at the western end, which at a few hundred metres long is one of the shortest rivers in the British Isles.{{cite web |url=http://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst3181.html |title=Morar, River |publisher=scottish-places.info |access-date=13 July 2014}} At the shallower western end of the loch, there are a number of sizeable forested islands.{{Google maps |url=https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.9603146,-5.6298173,12z |title=Loch Morar |access-date=13 July 2014}}{{cite map |url=http://maps.nls.uk/view/74422165 |title=Loch Morar |publisher=National Library of Scotland |access-date=13 July 2014}}

At the western end of the loch is the village of Morar, which is between Arisaig and Mallaig on the coastal A830 road. The settlements of Bracorina and Bracara are located along the northern shore of the loch, but there is no road along the southern shore. Tarbet, on the shore of Loch Nevis, is a short distance from Loch Morar.

File:Sron Ghaothar on Loch Morar - geograph.org.uk - 190066.jpg

According to the posthumously published dictionary of the Scottish Gaelic language collected by Fr. Allan MacDonald (1859–1905), "Loch Morar is said to be blessed by St. Columba and is called ({{langx|gd|Tobar Chaluim Chille}}), 'St. Columba's Well'. It is safe to drink its water though in the greatest heat and perspiration. It does not freeze. The only ice seen about it is at the foot of the mountain streams flowing into it." In relation to Loch Morar's traditional veneration as a holy well, MacDonald also collected, "a story of a young woman who had lost her hair which grew again after she had bathed her head in the Loch."Collected by Fr. Allan MacDonald (1958, 1972, 1991), Gaelic Words from South Uist and Eriskay – Edited, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Edited and with a foreword by John Lorne Campbell. Second edition with supplement, published by the Oxford University Press. p. 243.

In common with Loch Ness, occasional reports of large unidentified creatures in the loch's waters are made. The loch monster has been dubbed Mòrag.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H82nPAAACAAJ |last1=Campbell |first1=Elizabeth Montgomery |first2=David John |last2=Solomon |title=The Search for Morag |publisher=Tom Stacey |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-85468-093-1}}{{cite web |url=http://www.lochmorar.org.uk/wildlife/cryptozoology/ |title=Cryptozoology |publisher=lochmorar.org.uk |access-date=13 July 2014}}

File:Eilean Bàn - geograph.org.uk - 2548436.jpg

The island in Loch Morar known as Eilean Bàn was traditionally used by the local population as grazing for their cattle herds and was, until trees began being planted in the 19th-century, completely bare of the "dense, barely penetrable growth of timber", that covers the island today.John Watts (2004), Hugh MacDonald: Highlander, Jacobite, Bishop, John Donald Press. pp. 31-32. The same island was briefly the location first of a Mass stone and then of an illegal and clandestine Catholic minor seminary founded by Bishop James Gordon, until the Jacobite rising of 1715 forced its closure and eventual reopening at Scalan in Glenlivet.Odo Blundell (1917), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, Volume II, pp. 88-89. Even long afterwards, Eilean Bàn remained a secret chapel and library for Bishop Gordon's successors.John Watts (2004), Hugh MacDonald: Highlander, Jacobite, Bishop, John Donald Press. pp. 31-32. According to Strathglass historian Flora Forbes, however, "a Catholic chapel at this time anywhere throughout the Highlands was usually a barn-like structure, with no windows and a mud floor." [http://www.eskadale.org/strathglass.html The Part Played by the People of Strathglass in the Survival and Revival of the Faith in the Highlands] by Flora Forbes (written for the 150th Anniversary of St Mary's Church in Eskadale, in 1977).

After the Battle of Culloden, a combined force of Royal Navy sailors under the command of Captain John Fergussone of {{HMS|Furnace|1740|6}} and Captain Duff of {{HMS|Terror|1741|6}} and troops from the Campbell of Argyll Militia portaged over nine miles of uncharted, rough, and previously thought to be impassable terrain. They were seeking to capture Bishop Hugh MacDonald, the underground Roman Catholic Vicar General of the Highland District, and high-ranking local Jacobite Army veterans, mainly from Clan Donald, who were correctly suspected of meeting together at the library, former seminary, and Catholic chapel on Eilean Bàn in Loch Morar on 8 June 1746.Odo Blundell (1917), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, Volume II, pp. 95-99.

According to a later report for the Duke of Newcastle, "Upon their arrival at the lake, they immediately spread themselves opposite to the Isle, and in full view of the rebels thereon; who, concluding themselves quite free from danger, fired on our people, at the same time calling them by insulting and opprobrious names, being near enough to be heard. This exultation, however, was quickly at an end; for the King's ships having sailed round to that part of the coast where their boats had little more than a mile to be carried overland to the lake... the rebels immediately lost all courage..."Odo Blundell (1917), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, Volume II, pp. 96-97.

Although the Bishop and the Jacobite leaders managed to quickly row from Eilean Bàn to the loch shore and "escaped into the mountains", according the same report for the Duke of Newcastle, when the government soldiers and sailors arrived upon Eilean Bàn, "They found the before-named Popish bishop's house and chapel; which the sailors quickly gutted and demolished, merrily adorning themselves with the spoils of the chapel. In the scramble, a great many books and papers were tossed about and destroyed."Odo Blundell (1917), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, Volume II, p. 97.

Some of the chapel and seminary foundation stones are still visibly upon Eilean Bàn. Watts has termed the 8 June 1746 book burning and the destruction of most of Bishop MacDonald personal papers, "an irreplaceable loss both for the eighteenth-century Church and the scholar of today."John Watts (2004), Hugh MacDonald: Highlander, Jacobite, Bishop, John Donald Press. pp. 117.

File:Our Lady of Perpetual Succour & St Cumin, Morar.jpg.]]

At least some items, though, are believed to have been removed from Eilean Bàn in time. In 1917, Dom Odo Blundell of Fort Augustus Abbey wrote, "At Morar chapel-house is preserved a set of green vestments, with red and white intermingled, bearing the date 1745. It still has its original lining; there is also an altar front to match it. These were probably brought over from France by the adherents of Prince Charlie, and must have been part of the furnishings of the chapel on the island, though it is not known how they were saved when the building was ransacked and burned in 1746. The same remarks apply to the old chalice, which bears the inscription, Ad usum Pr Fr Vincenti Mariani, Missri Scot. Ord. Praedic. Anno 1658. This chalice, which is of silver, is very small indeed; it has its paten to match. Unfortunately, we have no further information regarding this early missioner. In the list of priests for 1668 it is stated that there were three Dominicans on this mission. Father Vincent was apparently one of these; the others being Father George Fanning - long in the Isle of Barra and Father Primrose - who died in prison in 1671."Odo Blundell (1917), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, Volume II, p. 114.

Following the action, however, Capt. John Fergussone suspected "that Lord Lovat's lameness must have rendered it utterly impracticable for him to travel in so rugged a country", and the crew of HMS Furnace accordingly continued meticulously searching inside the caves surrounding the Loch, "for three days and nights". They eventually, as Capt. Fergussone had expected, succeeded in capturing Lord Lovat, who was hiding inside a cave in nearby Glen Meoble.John S. Gibson (1967), Ships of the Forty-Five: The Rescue of the Young Pretender, Hutchinson & Co. London. With a Preface by Sir James Fergusson of Kilkerran, Bart., L.L.D. pp. 53-54.

Image:Simon Fraser, 11th Baron Lovat by William Hogarth.jpg of Clan Fraser and senior Jacobite Army leader Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, sketched by William Hogarth after his capture at Loch Morar and shortly before being tried for high treason before his peers in the House of Lords and afterwards executed by beheading on Tower Hill.]]

In his naval history of the Jacobite rising and its aftermath, historian John S. Gibson commented about the capture of Lord Lovat at Loch Morar, "London, which, with the events of the past year, had come to abhor highlanders, could scarcely have been more elated had Charles Edward himself been caught. A small mythology was quick to grow up about the circumstances of his capture, as in the contemporary print of Fergussone and the soldiers of Guise's bursting in on the aged peer disguised as an old woman."John S. Gibson (1967), Ships of the Forty-Five: The Rescue of the Young Pretender, Hutchinson & Co. London. With a Preface by Sir James Fergusson of Kilkerran, Bart., L.L.D. p. 54.

Following his escape into the mountains, Bishop MacDonald remained in hiding locally until he managed to escape to France, during the sixth attempt by the French Royal Navy and French privateers to find and rescue the Prince and his entourage, and was evacuated from what is now the Prince's Cairn at Loch nan Uamh on 19 September 1746.

File:Ruin at Brinacory - geograph.org.uk - 34929.jpg

During the period of the Highland Clearances, many residents emigrated to Canada.{{cite book |title=The People's Clearance: Highland Emigration to British North America, 1770-1815 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=akEtTJNF7DAC&pg=PA74 |year=1982 |publisher=University of Manitoba Press |isbn=978-0-88755-382-0 |page=74}} Boats left in 1790, 1802,{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=J.K. |last2=Wilson |first2=Bruce G. |title=Historical Essays on Upper Canada: New Perspectives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=asyduxzal4gC&pg=PA172 |year=1989 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press |isbn=978-0-7735-7354-3 |page=172}} and 1826,{{cite book |last=Campey |first=Lucille H. |title=After the Hector: The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, 1773-1852 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LcucbvRuozUC&pg=PA118 |year=2007 |publisher=Dundurn |isbn=978-1-55002-770-9 |page=118}} carrying people to Quebec, Glengarry in Ontario, and the Strait of Canso in Nova Scotia respectively.

Swordland Lodge, on the northern shore of the loch, was used as training school STS 23b by the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIK7dMz1HK4C&pg=PA4 |page=4 |title=How to be a Spy: The World War II SOE Training Manual |first=Denis |last=Rigden |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-55488-191-8 |publisher=Dundurn}}{{cite web |url=http://her.highland.gov.uk/hbsmrgatewayhighland/DataFiles/LibraryLinkFiles/11136.htm |title=Special Operations |author=David Harrison |publisher=her.highland.gov.uk |access-date=14 July 2014 |archive-date=14 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714133456/http://her.highland.gov.uk/hbsmrgatewayhighland/DataFiles/LibraryLinkFiles/11136.htm |url-status=dead }}

File:Loch Morar hydro station - geograph.org.uk - 909935.jpg

A 750 kW hydroelectric power station with a hydraulic head of {{convert|5.5|m}} was built on the River Morar and commissioned in 1948.{{cite web |url=http://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst10839.html |title=Morar Power Station |publisher=scottish-places.info |access-date=13 July 2014}}{{cite web |url=http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/record/rcahms/277877/morar-dam-hydro-electric-power-scheme/rcahms |title=Morar Dam, Hydro-electric Power Scheme |publisher=scotlandsplaces.gov.uk |access-date=13 July 2014}}

File:Ceann Loch Morar. - geograph.org.uk - 47594.jpg

Loch Morar is located entirely within the Morar Group of sediments, which were deposited in the latter part of the Cambrian, and subsequently subjected to many phases of deformation.{{cite web |url=http://www.lochmorar.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Geology-of-Loch-Morar.pdf |title=Geology of Loch Morar |publisher=lochmorar.org.uk |access-date=12 July 2014}}

The loch occupies a basin produced by the overdeepening of the valley by glacial erosion, along an east–west fault line.{{cite book |author=N. H. Trewin |title=The Geology of Scotland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ObdepEp9r7kC&pg=PA411 |year=2002 |publisher=Geological Society of London |isbn=978-1-86239-126-0 |page=411}}{{cite book |author=Bernard E. Leake |title=The Life and Work of Professor J. W. Gregory FRS (1864-1932): Geologist, Writer and Explorer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VSMB0DrDnsIC&pg=PA145 |year=2011 |publisher=Geological Society of London |isbn=978-1-86239-323-3 |page=145}} It is not a sea loch due to isostatic rebound that raised the rock sill at the end of the loch.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hluxrq3xyGQC&pg=PA90 |title=Glacial Environments |first=M. J. |last=Hambrey |year=1994 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-0510-0 |page=90}}

Based on estimates of erosion of between {{convert|2|-|4|mm|in|abbr=on|frac=32}} per year, the deep basin was created over a period of 67,000 – 150,000 years of glacial action, which occurred intermittently during the last million years of the Quaternary glaciation. An outwash fan made up of sand and gravels at the western end of the loch marks the limit of the re-advance in the Morar valley.{{cite journal |url=http://sjg.lyellcollection.org/content/2/1/84.abstract |title=The limits of the Late-glacial Highland, or Loch Lomond, Readvance along the West Highland seaboard from Oban to Mallaig |year=1966 |last=McCann |first=S.B. |journal=Scottish Journal of Geology |volume=2 |issue=1 |doi=10.1144/sjg02010084 |bibcode=1966ScJG....2...84M |s2cid=128585142 |at=Synopsis|url-access=subscription }} Subsequently, colonised by vegetation and known as Mointeach Mhòr (the mossy plain), these deposits blocked the outflow of the loch to the south, so that it drained from the north-west corner instead.{{cite web |url=http://www.lochabergeopark.org.uk/Pages/Road_to_the_Isles.asp |work=Road to the Isles |title=4. Mointeach Mhòr |publisher=Lochaber Geopark |access-date=20 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726121307/http://www.lochabergeopark.org.uk/Pages/Road_to_the_Isles.asp |archive-date=26 July 2014 |url-status=dead }}

The catchment area of the loch is {{convert|168|km2}}, and the geology is base-poor.{{Cite book |last1=Bailey-Watts |first1=A. E. |last2=Duncan |first2=P. |year=1981 |chapter=Chemical characterisation — A one-year comparative study |title=The Ecology of Scotland's Largest Lochs |series=Monographiae Biologicae |volume=44 |pages=67 |doi=10.1007/978-94-009-8635-0_3 |isbn=978-94-009-8637-4}} A site to the north of the loch was selected in 2011 as a SSSI for its characteristic rock exposures of the Moine group by the Geological Conservation Review, replacing the area around Mallaig harbour, which had been previously regarded as the most representative site.{{cite news |url=http://www.road-to-the-isles.org.uk/westword/april2011.html |work=West Word |title=News from Mallaig Harbour April 2011 |access-date=20 July 2014}}

The loch is surrounded by a mix of natural woodland, open hillside, sheep and cattle pasture and planted mixed coniferous and broadleaf woodlands.{{cite web |url=http://www.lochmorar.org.uk/wildlife/ |title=Wildlife Around Loch Morar |publisher=lochmorar.org.uk |access-date=11 July 2014}} Only around 0.7% of the surface of the loch can be colonised by plants.

Loch Morar's fish population is believed to be limited to Atlantic Salmon, brown trout and sea trout, Arctic char, eel, stickleback, and minnow.{{cite report |url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Uploads/Documents/Coll1496.pdf |title=A Repeat Survey of Salmon and Trout Stocks in the Loch Morar System |first=Andrew |last=Walker |year=1996 |publisher=Fisheries Research Service}}{{cite web |url=http://www.lochmorar.org.uk/wildlife/fish-populations/ |title=Fish Populations |publisher=lochmorar.org.uk |access-date=11 July 2014}} Trout average around {{convert|3/4|lb|g|order=flip|abbr=on}} in size, but ferox trout of up to {{convert|15|lb|kg|0|order=flip|abbr=on}} have been caught.{{cite web |url=http://www.lochmorar.org.uk/fishing/ |title=Fishing on Loch Morar |publisher=lochmorar.org.uk |access-date=11 July 2014}} The loch is also known to contain eels, although none were caught in a recent survey of eel populations in Lochaber, suggesting that they prefer the loch to the tributaries surveyed.{{cite report |url=http://www.lochaberfish.org.uk/cust_images/Lochaber_eel_report_2010.pdf |first=Diane |last1=Baum |first2=Lucy |last2=Smith |title=Lochaber Eel Report 2010 |publisher=Lochaber Fisheries Trust |year=2010 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Catches of salmon and sea trout declined dramatically between the 1970s and 1980s, in common with other catchments on the west coast.{{cite report |url=http://scotland.gov.uk/Uploads/Documents/Coll0102.pdf |title=The Status of Salmon and Sea Trout Stocks in the West Coast of Scotland |first1=J. C. |last1=Maclean |first2=A. F. |last2=Walker |year=2002 |publisher=Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory |archive-date=21 October 2012 |access-date=29 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021020131/http://scotland.gov.uk/Uploads/Documents/Coll0102.pdf |url-status=dead }} Artificial stocking of the River Morar with salmon and sea trout was suspended in 2007 after the hatchery was closed.

The main salmonid spawning grounds are the River Meoble and the smaller burns that feed into the loch. The hydroelectric power station, which contain one of only two fish counters in Lochaber, is shut down during the smolt run, following a study on smolt mortality in 1992.

The catchment is managed by the Morar District Salmon Fishery Sub-board, which employs a full-time fisheries manager. Poaching in the form of netting has been known to occur at the mouth of the River Morar.

{{reflist}}

{{commons category}}

• [http://maps.nls.uk/view/74422165 Map of Loch Morar] from soundings performed by John Murray and Laurence Pullar
• [http://maps.nls.uk/dcn6/7443/74432898.6.pdf Murrary and Puller's description of the loch]

{{Lochaber}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morar, Loch}}

Category:Morar Basin

Category:Anti-Catholicism in Scotland

Category:Book burnings

Category:Catholic seminaries in Scotland

Category:Church arson in Europe

Category:Churches destroyed by arson

Category:Destroyed libraries

Category:History of Catholicism in Scotland

Category:Holy wells in Scotland

Category:Lochs of Highland (council area)

Category:Lochaber

Category:Mass stones in Scotland

Category:Oligotrophic lakes

Loch Morar

Category:Freshwater lochs of Scotland

Category:Lochs of Lochaber

Category:Scottish folklore

Category:Underground education