Carcluie Loch (NS 34894 16186) is a small freshwater

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 ...

in the

South Ayrshire South Ayrshire ( sco, Sooth Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir a Deas, ) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of Ayrshire. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire. On 30 June 2 ...

Council Area, lying in a glacial

Kettle Hole A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating gla ...

, Parish of Dalrymple,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

The loch

Blaeu's map of circa 1654 taken from

Timothy Pont Rev Timothy Pont (c. 1560–c.1627) was a Scottish minister, cartographer and topographer. He was the first to produce a detailed map of Scotland. Pont's maps are among the earliest surviving to show a European country in minute detail, from an a ...

's map of circa 1600 shows Loch Luy and nearby the dwelling of Kar Cluy. In 1821 the farm was recorded as Kirklewy, but no loch shown. In 1832 Thomson's map shows a small loch at Carcluie. In the 1870s the OS map shows that the loch was roughly oval in shape, and of an extent of 0.709 hectares or 1.752 acres. The loch is fed by the Carcluie Burn and a burn running down the hill from the vicinity of the railway; the outflow runs down towards Broomberry.

Drainage

The loch's drainage may have begun in the early 18th century when

Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton (10 February 172325 October 1769), was a Scottish peer. Eglinton was the son of The 9th Earl of Eglinton. His mother, who was the third wife of the 9th Earl, was Susanna, Countess of Eglinton, the ...

, was pursuing a number of agricultural improvements on his extensive estates. Further drainage work may have taken place in the 1740s as part of the improvements undertaken to provide employment for Irish estate workers during the Irish potato famines of the 1740s and the mid 19th centuries. Many drainage schemes also date to the end of World War I when many soldiers returned en masse to civilian life.

Island

Smith records that the former roughly circular island within the loch, having all the appearance of a

crannog A crannog (; ga, crannóg ; gd, crannag ) is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Unlike the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, which were bu ...

once had 'pile-heads' in the water around it. A casual inspection did not reveal any supporting evidence. Smith gives the spelling as 'Carclui'. The island is no longer visible (2011), the SW end of the loch being entirely overgrown with reeds. Probing at the position of the island shown on the OS 1:10,000 map recorded that the natural deposits in this part of the loch to be over 2m deep. A 1993 investigation sees the site as possessing an island and not a crannog. ;Situation The loch was on the route of the old road from

Straiton Straiton is a village on the River Girvan in South Ayrshire in Scotland, mainly built in the 18th century, but with some recent housing. It was the main location for the film '' The Match,'' where two rival pubs played against each other in a ...

to Kirkmichael and onto Dalrymple.

Natural history

Extensive areas of reeds (''

Phragmites ''Phragmites'' () is a genus of four species of large perennial reed grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Taxonomy The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, maintained by Kew Garden in London ...

'' sp.) are present. The site is listed on the WEBS register of the Wetlands Birds Survey scheme.WEBS
Retrieved : 2011-09-12 The loch is a

Scottish Wildlife Trust The Scottish Wildlife Trust is a Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, registered charity dedicated to conserving the Natural history of Scotland, wildlife and natural environment of Scotland. Description The Scottish Wildlife Trust has well ...

provisional wildlife site. The loch margins are dominated by rushes (Juncus sps) with willow scrub and a conifer plantation.

Common house martin The common house martin (''Delichon urbicum''), sometimes called the northern house martin or, particularly in Europe, just house martin, is a migratory passerine bird of the swallow family which breeds in Europe, north Africa and across the ...

s (''Delichon urbicum'') use the loch and its margins as a feeding area until late September.

References

Notes

Sources

# MacIntosh, Donald (2006). ''Travels in Galloway''. Glasgow : Neil Wilson. . # Smith, John (1895). ''Prehistoric Man in Ayrshire''. London : Elliot Stock. {{refend Lochs of South Ayrshire History of South Ayrshire Freshwater lochs of Scotland Lakes of South Ayrshire