Loch Craignish from near Ormaig - geograph

Loch Craignish is a

sea loch ''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 ...

on the mid-Argyll coast.

Geography

Loch Craignish lies between

Oban Oban ( ; ' in Scottish Gaelic meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William. During the tourist season, th ...

and the Crinan Canal. Its opens into the

Sound of Jura The Sound of Jura () is a strait in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is one of the several Sounds of Scotland. It is to the east of the island of Jura and to the west of Knapdale, part of a peninsula of the Scottish mainland. The Crinan Canal's ...

and provides a safe anchorage for small craft. Several islands lie within the loch, the largest being

Eilean Rìgh Eilean Rìgh is an island in the Inner Hebrides of the west coast of Scotland. It lies in Loch Craignish, about off the Argyll coastline. The name is Gaelic for "King's Island", although which royal is not known. History The island has the ...

Eilean Mhic Chrion Eilean Mhic Chrion is a tidal island sheltering Ardfern in Loch Craignish, Scotland. Eilean Mhic Chrion is one of 43 tidal islands that can be walked to from the mainland of Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlan ...

and

Island Macaskin Island Macaskin or MacAskin ( gd, Eilean MhicAsgain) is an island in Loch Craignish, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is owned by the Jenkin family and has been since 1904. History and wildlife The island was formerly inhabited, and unusual ...

. The village of Ardfern lies on its northwestern shore.

History

Loch Craignish was a crossroads for prehistoric settlers between

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and the

Great Glen The Great Glen ( gd, An Gleann Mòr ), also known as Glen Albyn (from the Gaelic "Glen of Scotland" ) or Glen More (from the Gaelic ), is a glen in Scotland running for from Inverness on the edge of Moray Firth, in an approximately straight ...

. A stone pier on the south of the peninsula was used by drovers from Jura and

Knapdale Knapdale ( gd, Cnapadal, IPA: �kraʰpət̪əɫ̪ forms a rural district of Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Highlands, adjoining Kintyre to the south, and divided from the rest of Argyll to the north by the Crinan Canal. It includes two parishes, ...

Footnotes

Sea lochs of Scotland The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

Craignish Craignish (Scottish Gaelic, ''Creiginis'') is a peninsula in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland. It lies around south of Oban, and north-west of Lochgilphead. The peninsula is around long, and is aligned along a north-east to south-west orie ...

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