Loch Doon ( gd, Loch Dùin, ) is a freshwater
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 ...
in
Carrick, Scotland
Carrick (Irish Gaelic) is a former '' comital'' district of Scotland which today forms part of South Ayrshire.
History
The district of Carrick originally formed part of the 11th- to 12th-century Kingdom of Galloway, whose lords ruled it until 11 ...
. The
River Doon
The River Doon ( gd, Abhainn Dhùin, ) is a river in Ayrshire, Scotland. Its course is generally north-westerly, passing near to the town of Dalmellington, and through the villages of Patna, Dalrymple, and Alloway, birthplace of Robert Burns. ...
issues from its northern end, while the loch itself receives waters from Gala Lane
and
Loch Enoch (in the
Galloway Hills) via Eglin Lane.
History
In the 13th century, it was a site of
Balloch Castle, owned by the
Earls of Carrick
Earl of Carrick (or Mormaer of Carrick) is the title applied to the ruler of Carrick (now South Ayrshire), subsequently part of the Peerage of Scotland. The position came to be strongly associated with the Scottish crown when Robert the Bruce ...
. In the
Scottish Wars of Independence
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of ...
it was held by one Gille Brighde, Sir
Gilbert de Carrick Gilbert may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
*Gilbert (surname), including a list of people
Places Australia
* Gilbert River (Queensland)
* Gilbert River (South A ...
, a
native Carrick nobleman who surrendered it to the English. It was soon recovered by the Scots. In the 15th century, it was frequently in the hands of the
Kennedy Clan
The O'Kennedy family (Irish language, Irish: ''Ó Cinnéide''), sometimes Kennedy, were an Irish royal dynasty, a sept of the Dál gCais, founded in the Middle Ages who were Kings of Ormond. Their founder was the nephew of High King of Ireland, ...
, although it was briefly in the hands of the
Maclellans (backed by
William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas
William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas, 2nd Earl of Avondale (1425 – 22 February 1452) was a late Medieval Scottish nobleman, Lord of Galloway, and Lord of the Regality of Lauderdale, and the most powerful magnate in Southern Scotland. He was ki ...
) after a siege in 1446. The
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
was destroyed in the 16th century by King
James V
James V (10 April 1512 – 14 December 1542) was King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV and Margaret Tudor, and du ...
as part of a general policy of reducing the power of the barons.
In the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
, there was a growing need to train
pilots and
aircrew in
aerial gunnery. Loch Doon was thought to be ideally suited for such an establishment with its surrounding steep hills being an ideal position for target
ranges
In the Hebrew Bible and in the Old Testament, the word ranges has two very different meanings.
Leviticus
In Leviticus 11:35, ranges probably means a cooking furnace for two or more pots, as the Hebrew word here is in the dual number; or perhaps ...
. Work began in September 1916 and an
airfield
An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...
,
slipways, piers,
jetties,
seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...
hangars, tramways and other associated buildings erected. The remains of these can still be found on the Loch shore today.
The loch was
dammed in the 1930s, raising the water some to provide seasonal storage for the
Galloway hydro-electric power scheme. As a reservoir, Loch Doon has an effective capacity of over 82 million cubic metres. When rainfall is plentiful, water is diverted to the loch from the Water of Deugh via a tunnel system. When water is required for power generation, water is released at Drumjohn to feed Kendoon power reservoir, the first in a series of generating stations and
reservoirs
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...
on the
Water of Ken
The Water of Ken is a river in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Galloway, south-west Scotland. It rises on Blacklorg Hill, north-east of Cairnsmore of Carsphairn in the Carsphairn hills, and flows south-westward into The Glenkens, ...
.
During construction work, the
ruins of the castle were moved from an
island
An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...
in the Loch to the shore to avoid the rising water.
Air crashes
Two
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. ...
are known to have crashed in or near the Loch in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
On 18 March 1944
F/O Roswell Murray MacTavish of
439 Squadron,
Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environ ...
was on a training flight from
RAF Heathfield in
Hawker Hurricane Mk. IV LD564 when it crashed into the forest beside the loch. MacTavish was killed and is buried in Ayr Cemetery. Remains of the aircraft, including its
Rolls-Royce Merlin
The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27- litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later ...
engine, are still at the crash site.
Loch Doon Spitfire
On 25 October 1941
F/O František Hekl of
No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF
No. 312 Squadron RAF was a Czechoslovak-manned fighter squadron of the Royal Air Force in the Second World War.
History
The squadron was formed at Duxford on 29 August 1940. It was crewed mostly by escaped Czechoslovak pilots, but its first c ...
crashed a
Spitfire Mk IIA into the loch on a solo training flight from RAF Heathfield. The Spitfire was serial number P7540, carrying the marking DU-W.
An eyewitness saw the Spitfire flying low over the surface of the loch when Hekl banked the aircraft to starboard and its starboard wingtip caught the water surface. Hekl lost control and the aircraft broke up and sank, leaving only a patch of oil on the water. An RAF salvage crew brought a boat and spent several days trawling parts of the bed of the loch, but failed to find either the aircraft or Hekl's body.
In 1977 the Dumfries branch of the
Scottish Sub Aqua Club began a systematic search of the bed of the loch in the area where an eyewitness thought the aircraft had crashed. In 1979 several clubs from the Northern Federation of British Sub-Aqua Clubs joined the search, and Blackpool Sub-Aqua Club took over organisation of the project.
[
The search was unsuccessful so in 1982 it was moved to a different area of the loch, where divers quickly found the Spitfire's tail and rear part of the fuselage. In subsequent dives other parts of the aircraft were found, scattered over a distance of 200 metres. Both wings were badly damaged, magnesium parts such as the undercarriage wheels had corroded away, but the Merlin Mk XII engine was recovered in good condition. Hekl's body was not found.][
The wreckage was moved to Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum, where the aircraft was slowly restored and a pair of replica wings fitted.][ Restoration to non-flying condition was completed in 2017.]
See also
* List of reservoirs and dams in the United Kingdom
References
External links
Pictures of Loch Doon
– Video footage of Loch Doon or Balliol Castle.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doon
Lochs of South Ayrshire
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Wigtown and Stewartry
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cumnock and Kyle
Protected areas of South Ayrshire
Freshwater lochs of Scotland
Lakes of South Ayrshire