Loch

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A loch is a body of water which is either:

a lake or;
a sea loch, which may be perceived also as a firth, fjord, estuary, bay or sea inlet.

This name for a body of water is Gaelic^[1] in origin and is applied to most lakes in Scotland and to many sea inlets in the west and north of Scotland. It is also applied to lakes and bays in Ireland. The anglicised form of loch in Ireland is lough.

Although there is no strict size definition, a small loch is often known as a lochan (so spelled also in Scottish Gaelic; in Irish it is spelled lochán).

Perhaps the most famous Scottish loch is Loch Ness, although there are other large examples such as Loch Awe, Loch Lomond and Loch Tay. For a full list, see list of Scottish lochs.

Examples of sea lochs in Scotland include Loch Long, Loch Fyne, Loch Linnhe, Loch Eriboll.

Some new reservoirs for hydroelectric schemes have been given names faithful to the names for natural bodies of water - for example: the Loch Sloy scheme, and Lochs Laggan and Treig (which form part of the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme near Fort William). Other expanses are simply called reservoirs, eg: Blackwater Reservoir above Kinlochleven.

Scotland has only one natural water body actually called a lake, the Lake of Menteith, an Anglicisation of the Scots Laich o Menteith meaning a "low-lying bit of land in Menteith", and applied to the loch there because of the similarity of the sounds of the words laich and lake. The Lake of the Hirsel is a reservoir.