Loch Airigh na Beinne is a mountain lochan (small

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 Assynt, Scotland, roughly 2km southwest of

Unapool Unapool is a small settlement in the Assynt district of Sutherland in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is located on the A894 between Durness and Ullapool. Ullapool and the A835 are located nearly 30 miles away. The nearest settlements ...

. The lochan sits on the northeast slopes of Assynt's iconic

Quinag , photo = Quinag.jpg , photo_caption = Quinag in the distance from the western end of Loch Assynt , elevation = Sàil Gharbh: 808 m (2,651 ft)Sàil Ghorm: 776 m (2,546 ft)Spidean Coinich: 764 m (2,506 ft) , prominence = ''c.'' 553 m, 158 m, 19 ...

, resting on a bed of

Lewisian gneiss The Lewisian complex or Lewisian gneiss is a suite of Precambrian metamorphic rocks that outcrop in the northwestern part of Scotland, forming part of the Hebridean Terrane and the North Atlantic Craton. These rocks are of Archaean and Paleoprote ...

. Its name means "Loch of the Mountain

Shieling A shieling is a hut or collection of huts on a seasonal pasture high in the hills, once common in wild or sparsely populated places in Scotland. Usually rectangular with a doorway on the south side and few or no windows, they were often cons ...

" in Scottish Gaelic. A 2020 survey of the loch found several

aquatics Aquatics may refer to: *Aquatic sports in the Olympics and other international competitions, including the disciplines of swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo, and open water swimming *Water-related sports more broadly (including boa ...

"typically found in such acid waters", including the white water-lily,

water lobelia ''Lobelia dortmanna'', Dortmann's cardinalflower or water lobelia, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This stoloniferous herbaceous perennial plant, perennial aquatic plant with basal leaf-rosettes and flower ...

, bulrush, and floating spike-rush. Surveyors also found evidence of caddisfly and northern eggar populations.

References

Lakes of Scotland Geography of Scotland {{Scotland-geo-stub