Lochcarron ( gd, Loch Carrann) is a village,

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the Wester Ross area of

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It has a population of 923.

Locality

The name Lochcarron is also applied to the collection of small settlements strung out along

Loch Carron Loch Carron (Scottish Gaelic: "Loch Carrann") is a sea loch on the west coast of Ross and Cromarty in the Scottish Highlands, which separates the Lochalsh peninsula from the Applecross peninsula, and from the Stomeferry headland east of Loch K ...

, 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 west coast of

Ross and Cromarty Ross and Cromarty ( gd, Ros agus Cromba), sometimes referred to as Ross-shire and Cromartyshire, is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use, the latt ...

. The village stretches for almost , meandering along the shore of the loch. It means "Loch of rough water". In the 19th Century the village was named Janetown, then Jeantown. The local newspaper, ''An Carrannach'', is published on a monthly basis. Lochcarron is a central location for hillwalking and touring the West Coast Highlands, including the

Torridon Torridon (Scottish Gaelic: ''Toirbheartan'') is a small village in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. However the name is also applied to the area surrounding the village, particularly the Torridon Hills, mountains to the north of Glen Torrido ...

Plockton Plockton ( gd, Am Ploc/Ploc Loch Aillse) is a village in the Lochalsh, Wester Ross area of the Scottish Highlands with a 2020 population of 468. Plockton settlement is on the shores of Loch Carron. It faces east away from the prevailing winds, a ...

and

Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated b ...

regions. Close to the village lies the

Bealach na Bà Bealach na Bà (pronounced ) is a winding single track road through the mountains of the Applecross peninsula, in Wester Ross in the Scottish Highlands. The Bealach na Bà is just one feature on this road, being its highest point and site of ...

road (Gaelic: ''Pass of the cattle''), which links

Applecross Applecross ( gd, A' Chomraich) is a peninsula north-west of Kyle of Lochalsh in the council area of Highland, Scotland. The name Applecross is at least 1,300 years old and is ''not'' used locally to refer to the 19th century village (which is ...

to the rest of the mainland. It is a road popular with tourists, drivers, and motorcyclists alike for its scenery and hairpin bends.

Amenities

Lochcarron contains a variety of local services. These include two

petrol station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

s, a

Spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...

shop (which has a

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

counter), a library, a nursing home (attached to which is the local library), medical centre and tartan weaving factory. There are also two hotels (offering entertainment and meals), a restaurant and two cafés. The community hall hosts a number of public events including ceilidhs and sales; and sports such as indoor bowls and short tennis. There are a number of self catering and bed and breakfast establishments, many of which are members of the local business association.

Education

The local primary school stands at the entrance to the village, with 43 pupils (as of December 2019). The primary school offers both English and Gaelic Medium education.

Plockton High School Plockton High School is a 300-pupil high school in the village of Plockton, Scotland. The catchment area for the school stretches from Applecross in the north to Corran in the south. Since the opening of the Skye Bridge, increasing numbers of pu ...

is the nearest secondary school to Lochcarron.

Employment

The area's biggest employment sectors include tourism,

crofting Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production particular to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th century townships, individual crofts were established on the bette ...

, and

fish farming upright=1.3, Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye">mariculture.html" ;"title="Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture">Salmon farming in the sea (mariculture) at Loch Ainort, Isle of Skye, Scotland Fish farming or ...

. Other employers include transportation via sea and road, and quarry work. Service industries include engineering, motor garages, health services and education. The Howard Doris Centre employs people in the care sector.

Sport and recreation

Sailing is a popular activity amongst the local and visiting population, and as such, a local RYA accredited, and Volvo Championship Club hosts free sailing sessions every Wednesday evening (between April and October), and racing sessions every Sunday afternoon. It currently enlists over 100 members. Lochcarron is home to the local

shinty Shinty ( gd, camanachd, iomain) is a team game played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread in Scotland, an ...

team Lochcarron Camanachd. The team currently play their home games at Battery Park in the west end of the village. The playing field is used during the week for training, and knockabout sessions. There is a 9-hole course in the area which is over 150 years old. The golf club's clubhouse offers catering facilities and golf clubs available to hire. The nearby Attadale hosts an annual Highland Games every third Saturday of July.

Gallery

Image:SmokeCeilingInLochcarron.jpg, Smoke rising in Lochcarron is stopped by an overlying layer of warmer air. File:Tartan Weaving in Lochcarron.jpg,

Tartan Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...

weaving in Lochcarron

References

{{reflist Populated places in Ross and Cromarty Parishes in Ross and Cromarty