Bismillaahirrohmaanirrohiim,
The term ‘loch’ is the Scottish, Irish word for a lake or for a sea inlet. The fact is that most of lochs in Scotland are not closed lakes. The only loch that is a lake in Scotland believed to be Lake of Menteith, as it is the Scotland’s only inland “natural” body of water. So we can say that all lakes are lochs, but not all lochs are lakes. According to the Scottish Natural Heritage, there are more than 3.000 fresh water lochs in Scotland, ranging from small lochs to big ones like Loch Ness and Loch Lomond.
Loch Ness is a fresh water loch that is located in Scottish Highlands, with length of 37 km situated in the southwestern Inverness with the surface of 16m above the sea level. This loch is famous for alleged sightings of ‘Nessie’, the Loch Ness monster that some people believed to be living in the loch.
By surface area of 56km2, Loch Ness is the second largest loch in Scotland after Loch Lomond. But due to its great depth, the deepest point in Loch Ness is recorded to be 230m, it becomes the largest by volume loch in the Britain Isles.
It is connected to the River Oich and a section of Caledonian Canal to Loch Oich in Fort Augustus at the southern end and at the northern end, it connected to Bona Narrows, the pinched water body to Loch Dochfour.
Sitting beside it is the Urquhart Castle, a castle that once was the biggest castle in Scotland and witnessed long conflict between Scots and English during the Scotts Independence War that lasting for almost 500 years as a medieval fortress. Like the Edinburgh Castle, the control of the castle passed back and fort between the Scots and English until was blown up during the Jacobite Rising when the troops left the castle. The ruins remain, leaving the glimpses and vibes of medieval times.
Slough-United Kingdom, 4 Januari 2019
