Loch Fannich is a remote loch in
Ross-shire
Ross-shire (; gd, Siorrachd Rois) is a historic county in the Scottish Highlands. The county borders Sutherland to the north and Inverness-shire to the south, as well as having a complex border with Cromartyshire – a county consisting o ...
, in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. The loch is located west of
Strathpeffer.
Etymology
The name ''Fannich'' may represent an adaption into
Gaelic of an earlier
Pictish
Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographica ...
name,
employing a cognate of
Welsh ''gwaneg'', meaning "a wave".
Details
Loch Fannich was dammed and its water level raised as part of the Conon Hydro-Electric Power Scheme, built by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board between 1946 and 1961. An underground water tunnel leading from Loch Fannich to the Grudie Bridge Power Station required blasting out a final mass of rock beneath the loch, a procedure which was referred to popularly as "Operation Bathplug".
There is no public road to the loch, and the distance from the A832 makes access difficult.
In the 1950s, the rising waters of the dammed loch subsumed the Cabuie Lodge (near the village of
Achanalt), once home to Sir
Arthur Bignold,
MP for
Wick Burghs in the early 20th century.
Gallery
Allt a Choire Mhoir from Sgurr nan Clach Geala.jpg, The Loch from above
Loch Fannich - geograph.org.uk - 1233848.jpg, Across the Loch
References
Fannich
Fannich
Fannich
Ross and Cromarty
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