Loch Morar

Loch Morar (Loch Mòrair) is a freshwater loch in the Rough Bounds of Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. It is the fifth-largest loch by surface area in Scotland, at 26.7 km2, and the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles with a maximum depth of 1017 ft. The loch was created by glacial action around 10,000 years ago, and has a surface elevation of 9 m above sea level. It separates the traditional district of North Morar (which contains the village of Morar), from Arisaig and Moidart.

Geography
Loch Morar is 18.8 km long, has a surface area of 26.7 km2, and is the deepest freshwater body in the British Isles with a maximum depth of 1017 ft. In 1910, John Murray and Laurence Pullar found it to have a mean depth of 284 ft and a total volume of 81482000000 ft3 during their survey of Scottish lochs. The bottom is deepened below the United Kingdom Continental Shelf, and until 1943, when a depth of 1062 ft was observed in the Inner Sound, it was believed to be the deepest water in the United Kingdom. The surface of the loch is 9 m above sea level.

The water of the loch is clear and oligotrophic, with a minimal intake of nutrients, making it a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). 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. At the shallower western end of the loch, there are a number of sizeable forested islands.



Swordland Lodge, on the northern shore of the loch, was used as training school STS 23b during the Second World War by the Special Operations Executive. A 750 kW hydroelectric power station with a hydraulic head of 5.5 m was built on the River Morar and commissioned in 1948.

Folklore
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.

Furthermore, according to the dictionary of the Scottish Gaelic language collected by Fr. Allan MacDonald, "Loch Morar is said to be blessed by St. Columba and is called (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, Fr. Allan MacDonald collected, "a story of a young woman who had lost her hair which grew again after she had bathed her head in the Loch."

History
The Loch is important to the history of the once strictly illegal and underground Catholic Church in Scotland. The island in Loch Morar was briefly the location of a clandestine Catholic seminary until the Jacobite rising of 1715 forced its closure and eventual reopening at Scalan in Glenlivet.

After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Royal Navy crews under the command of Captain John Fergussone of HMS Furnace (1740) and Captain Duff of HMS Terror (1741) portaged over nine miles of rough terrain. They were seeking to capture Bishop Hugh MacDonald, the underground Vicar General of the Highland District, and high-ranking local Jacobite Army veterans, who were correctly suspected of meeting together upon the former seminary and island chapel in Loch Morar on 8 June 1746. Although the Bishop and the Jacobite leaders managed to escape the island in the nick of time, the crew of HMS Furnace continued searching in caves surrounding the Loch and eventually succeeded in capturing Lord Lovat.

According a report of the action for the Duke of Newcastle, upon the island, "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."

In his naval history of the Jacobite rising and it's 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."

Following his narrow escape, the Bishop remained in hiding locally until he managed to arrange passage to France.

During the period of the Highland Clearances, many residents emigrated to Canada. Boats left in 1790, 1802, and 1826, carrying people to Quebec, Glengarry in Ontario, and the Strait of Canso in Nova Scotia respectively.

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."

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.

Geology
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.

The loch occupies a basin produced by the overdeepening of the valley by glacial erosion, along an east-west fault line. It is not a sea loch due to isostatic rebound that raised the rock sill at the end of the loch.

Based on estimates of erosion of between 2 - 4 mm 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. 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.

The catchment area of the loch is 168 km2, and the geology is base-poor. 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.

Wildlife
The loch is surrounded by a mix of natural woodland, open hillside, sheep and cattle pasture and planted mixed coniferous and broadleaf woodlands. Only around 0.7% of the surface of the loch can be colonised by plants.

Fish
Loch Morar's fish population is believed to be limited to Atlantic Salmon, brown trout and sea trout, Arctic char, eel, stickleback, and minnow. Trout average around 3/4 lb in size, but ferox trout of up to 15 lb have been caught. 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. Catches of salmon and sea trout declined dramatically between the 1970s and 1980s, in common with other catchments on the west coast. 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.