Alemoor Loch, also known as Alemoor Reservoir, is a small reservoir in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

area of Scotland. It is situated on the

Ale Water The Ale Water is a tributary of the River Teviot, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It rises at Henwoodie Hill and flows through Alemoor Loch. It meets the Teviot south of the village of Ancrum, and it runs through Ashkirk and Lillieslea ...

, west of Hawick. The

loch ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots language, Scots and Irish language, Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is Cognate, cognate with the Manx language, Manx lough, Cornish language, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh language, Welsh w ...

is approximately long, and is divided in two by a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tra ...

which carries the B711 road. In the 19th century, the loch was recorded as being round in shape, across, and up to deep. The loch was said to be the home of a "water-cow" or kelpie, and another tradition told of a child being carried off by an eagle and dropped into the loch. John Leyden (1775–1811) mentioned the darker associations of the loch in his 1803 poem ''Scenes of Infancy''. In the 1960s a dam was constructed and the loch was enlarged to its present size. An existing farmhouse was not removed, and its chimney pots can be seen in when the water level is extremely low. The loch is now used for coarse fishing, with the main species being

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

, perch and

roach Roach may refer to: Animals * Cockroach, various insect species of the order Blattodea * Common roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), a fresh and brackish water fish of the family Cyprinidae ** ''Rutilus'' or roaches, a genus of fishes * California roach ...

. The remains of a tower at Wester Alemoor, which had formerly stood by the loch, were destroyed by a new road before 1962. A large flint blade was discovered by the loch in 2003.

References

{{Authority control Lochs of the Scottish Borders Reservoirs in the Scottish Borders

See also

References