Cam Loch (the crooked loch) is an irregularly-shaped freshwater loch, about 5 km long, on a north-west to south-east orientation, located slightly north of the village of
Elphin, in the
Assynt
Assynt ( gd, Asainn or ) is a sparsely populated area in the south-west of Sutherland, lying north of Ullapool on the west coast of Scotland. Assynt is known for its landscape and its remarkable mountains, which have led to the area, along with ...
district of
Sutherland, Scotland.
The loch is located in an area along with neighbouring
Coigach
Coigach () is a peninsula north of Ullapool, in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The area consists of a traditional crofting and fishing community of a couple of hundred houses located between mountain and shore on a peninsula ...
, as the ''Assynt-Coigach
National Scenic Area'', one of 40 such areas in Scotland.
Geography
Located immediately to the south-west of Cam Loch, and at a slightly lower level, is
Loch Veyatie, which is roughly parallel to it.
The two lochs are connected by Abhainn Mhòr, which consists of extensions of the two lochs with a waterfall between them. It is an area that holds several large lochs, for example the irregular-shaped
Loch Sionascaig, directly to the west. The loch is overlooked by the twin peaks of
Cùl Mòr
Cùl Mòr is a shapely, twin summited mountain in the far north west of Scotland whose higher summit is the highest point of Inverpolly. It is almost completely separated from its southern neighbour, Cùl Beag. Despite its higher altitude, it i ...
at 849m to the south-west. Directly south of the loch is
Canisp
Canisp (Scottish Gaelic: ''Canasp'') is a mountain in the far north west of Scotland. It is situated in the parish of Assynt, in the county of Sutherland, north of the town of Ullapool. Canisp reaches a height of and qualifies as a Corbett an ...
at 847m. To the south-east, is the steep-sides ridge that forms the mountain of
Suilven
Suilven ( gd, Sùilebheinn) is a mountain in Scotland. Lying in a remote area in the west of Sutherland, it rises from a wilderness landscape of moorland, bogs, and lochans known as Inverpolly National Nature Reserve. Suilven forms a steep- ...
at 723m. Cam Loch sits in an area of
wilderness landscape of
moorland,
bogs, and
lochs
''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch.
In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spelling ...
and
lochans.
Cam Loch is fed by inflows from
Loch Urigill and
Loch Borralan via the River Ledbeg.
The loch drains via Abhainn Mhòr, into Loch Veyatie, that is part of the Fionn Loch Drainage System, that drains into
Fionn Loch, that in turn is drained by the
River Kirkaig into the sea.
Interglacial site
Cam Loch is internationally important as one of the most intensively studied
late glacial sites in Scotland, in studies by members of the
Freshwater Biological Association
The Freshwater Biological Association (FBA) is an independent scientific organisation founded in 1929 in Cumbria by Felix Eugen Fritsch, William Harold Pearsall, Francis Balfour-Browne, and Robert Gurney among others. Whilst originally created to ...
.
It is a reference site for the stratigraphy of the late glacial in north-west Scotland and used to compare paleoecological research with sites elsewhere in the United Kingdom and
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
.
The
sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...
s preserved on the loch bed are important for reconstructing the late glacial period between 13000 and 10000
BP.
The evidence provided by the sediment shows a rapid and marked climatic change during that period.
Due to richness of the evidence, the loch has been intensively studied over the years.
The sediments have been studied for their inorganic and
organic geochemistry
Organic geochemistry is the study of the impacts and processes that organisms have had on the Earth. It is mainly concerned with the composition and mode of origin of organic matter in rocks and in bodies of water. The study of organic geochemistr ...
,
pollen stratigraphy and
diatom stratigraphy.
Bibliography
Inorganic geochemistry
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Organic geochemistry
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Pollen stratigraphy
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Diatom stratigraphy
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Gallery
File:The Cam Loch - geograph.org.uk - 737109.jpg, The Cam Loch Looking across the southern part of the Loch. Cul Mor is in the distance on the right, with Cul Beag and Ben More Coigach on the left.
File:Cam Loch - geograph.org.uk - 972468.jpg, Cam Loch From the Lochinver/Ledmore path with Suilven in the background.
File:The Cam Loch - geograph.org.uk - 737127.jpg, The Cam Loch Looking across the broad middle part of the loch, from where the Elphin to Lochinver path leaves the loch and heads inland. Cul Mor is beyond.
File:Cam Loch - geograph.org.uk - 229569.jpg, Cam Loch. From path to Suilven from Elphin.
File:View over Cam Loch towards Suilven - geograph.org.uk - 628174.jpg, View over Cam Loch towards Suilven
References
{{Reflist
Freshwater lochs of Scotland
Kirkaig Basin
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Scotland