Loch Scridain 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 spel ...

, with a west-south west aspect, on the western, or

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

coastline of the Isle of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides,

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

, Scotland.

Geography

Loch Scridain extends inland as far as the island's only

Munro A Munro () is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nev ...

and extinct

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the Crust (geology), crust of a Planet#Planetary-mass objects, planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and volcanic gas, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Ear ...

, Ben More, a large

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

on the Ardmeanach peninsula to the north; the imposing Bearraich hill overlooks the mouth of the loch. To the south is the

Ross of Mull The Ross of Mull (Scottish Gaelic: ''An Ros Mhuileach'') is the largest peninsula of the Isle of Mull, about long, and makes up the south-western part of the island. It is bounded to the north by Loch Scridain and to the south by the Firth of L ...

, the longest peninsula on Mull, that reaches past the sea loch boundary into the Atlantic. Near the head of Loch Scridain is the Aird of Kinloch, a small peninsula that almost separates the main loch from the small inner sea loch, Loch Beg. Loch Beg is fed by the River Coladoir. Seabank Villa on the lochside at Kilfinichen Bay is the type locality for the mineral

mullite Mullite or porcelainite is a rare silicate mineral formed during contact metamorphism of clay minerals. It can form two stoichiometric forms: 3 Al2 O32 SiO2 or 2Al2O3 SiO2. Unusually, mullite has no charge-balancing cations present. As a result, th ...

."Mullite"
Mindat.org. Retrieved 22 October 2012.

Settlements

Loch Scridain has three settlements, Tiroran, Kilfinichen, and

Pennyghael Pennyghael ( gd, Peighinn nan Gàidheal) is a small village in the Ross of Mull, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located along the A849 road aligned along the coast line of Ross, on Loch Scridain in southwestern Mull, along the road to Bunessa ...

, with a total population of about 60. The A849 to

Bunessan Bunessan ( gd, Bun Easain) is a small village on the Ross of Mull in the south-west of the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland. The settlement is within the parish of Kilfinichen and Kilvickeon, and is situated on the A849. Community I ...

and

Fionnphort Fionnphort (, ) is the principal port of the Ross of Mull, and the second largest settlement in the area (its population is approximately 80). The village's name is the anglicised pronunciation of the Gaelic for "White Port" and previous names ...

runs along the southern shore of the loch and there is a turn off in Pennyghael to Carsaig Bay.

Geology

Loch Scridain to the Ardmeanach peninsula is a lava landscape in which the lava flows have created a layered effect. Basalt lava is rich in minerals and the land between the crags is green and fertile. There is black basalt, stained orange in places. The orange colour represents the top surfaces of the flow, weathered by the tropical climate of 60 million years ago. There is a fossil tree, with a cave to its right, a large boulder on the shore just below, and a small area of columnar basalt on its left. The cast of the tree is a hollow half-cylinder about wide, starting just above ground level. Just beyond the tree, there is a black sand beach, and there are in the basalt shoreline slab some older boulders overwhelmed by the lava flow of 60 million years ago.

References

{{Mull Scridain Scridain Isle of Mull Geological type localities of Scotland