Loch Laggan 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 spell ...

situated approximately west of Dalwhinnie in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...

. The loch has an irregular shape, runs nearly northeast to southwest and is approximately in length. It has an average depth of and is at its deepest. The eastern end of the loch features the largest freshwater beach in Britain. Since 1934 Loch Laggan has been part of the

Lochaber hydro-electric scheme The Lochaber hydroelectric scheme is a hydroelectric power generation project constructed in the Lochaber area of the western Scottish Highlands after the First World War. Like its predecessor at Kinlochleven, it was intended to provide electri ...

. At the northeast end of the loch is the hamlet of Kinloch Laggan. The loch was surveyed on 2 and 3 of June 1902 by Sir John Murray, T.R.N. Johnston, James Parsons and James Murray and was later charted as part of the ''Bathymetrical Survey of Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland 1897-1909''. The A86 road from

Spean Bridge Spean Bridge ( gd, Drochaid an Aonachain) is a village in the parish of Kilmonivaig, in Lochaber in the Highland region of Scotland. The village takes its name from the Highbridge over the River Spean on General Wade's military road between ...

Kingussie Kingussie ( ; gd, Ceann a' Ghiùthsaich ) is a small town in the Badenoch and Strathspey ward of the Highland council area of Scotland. Counties of Scotland, Historically in Inverness-shire, it lies beside the A9 road (Great Britain), A9 road, ...

follows the loch's north shore. The

River Pattack A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

flows into the head of the loch just below the road bridge at Kinloch Laggan. The boundary of the

Cairngorms National Park Cairngorms National Park ( gd, Pàirc Nàiseanta a' Mhonaidh Ruaidh) is a national park in northeast Scotland, established in 2003. It was the second of two national parks established by the Scottish Parliament, after Loch Lomond and The Tros ...

wraps around the head of the loch. A short section of the

River Spean The River Spean flows from Loch Laggan in a westerly direction to join the River Lochy at Gairlochy in the Great Glen in the West Highlands of Scotland. Major tributaries of the Spean include the left-bank Abhainn Ghuilbinn and River Treig, th ...

connects the natural loch with the reservoir downstream and this river continues westwards below Laggan Dam. Two other substantial watercourses empty into the loch, the Allt Labhrach which drains

Lochan na h-Earba The single name Lochan na h-Earba is applied to two lochs to the south of Loch Laggan in Highland, Scotland, close to the historic boundary between Lochaber and Badenoch. It is thought that the two lochs once formed a single loch, but became sepa ...

which lies southeast of Loch Laggan and Allt Coire Ardair which rises beneath

Creag Meagaidh Creag Meagaidh ( gd, Creag Mèagaidh) is a mountain on the northern side of Glen Spean in the Highlands of Scotland. It is a complex mountain, made up of a flat summit plateau, with five ridges spreading out from it, overlooking five deep cor ...

. The remains of an island dwelling lie in the middle of the loch near Ardverikie. The loch featured in the popular BBC series '' Monarch of the Glen'' as Loch Bogle.

Popular culture

Loch Laggan (mostly its castle) is featured in the '' Temeraire'' series of novels, being used as a base to raise dragons, because of geothermal heat sources. Some scenes for '' Monarch of the Glen'' were filmed on the shores of the loch. During summer 2019, filming for ''

No Time to Die ''No Time to Die'' is a 2021 spy film and the twenty-fifth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, starring Daniel Craig in his fifth and final portrayal of fictional British MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by Cary ...

'' was taking place in and near the

. Some scenes were also being shot at the

Ardverikie House Ardverikie House is a 19th-century Scottish baronial house in Kinloch Laggan, Newtonmore, Inverness-shire, Scottish Highlands. The house was made famous as the fictional Glenbogle estate in the BBC series '' Monarch of the Glen''. History The ...

Estate and on the banks of Loch Laggan. The Loch lends its name to The Laggan, a Scottish folk band, active in the 1960s and 70s who released a series of records and performed internationally.

Gallery

File:Kinloch Laggan end of Loch Laggan - geograph.org.uk - 20850.jpg File:Loch Laggan - geograph.org.uk - 322376.jpg File:Loch Laggan - geograph.org.uk - 330085.jpg File:Sandy Beach at Loch Laggan - geograph.org.uk - 493003.jpg

References

{{authority control Laggan Laggan Laggan Lochy Basin

Popular culture

Gallery

See also

References