Loch Oich (; gd, Loch Omhaich) 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 ...

in the

Highlands of Scotland 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 ...

which forms part of the

Caledonian Canal The Caledonian Canal connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William in Scotland. The canal was constructed in the early nineteenth century by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford. Route The canal ...

, of which it is the highest point. This narrow loch lies between Loch Ness (to the north-east) and Loch Lochy (to the south-west) in the Great Glen. It is fed by the River Garry (from Loch Garry) from the west, and feeds the

River Oich The River Oich is a short river that flows through the Great Glen in Scotland. It carries water from Loch Oich (to the SW) to Loch Ness (to the NE) and runs in parallel to a section of the Caledonian Canal The Caledonian Canal connects the ...

from its northern end. The Laggan locks separate it from Loch Lochy. The Loch Oich wildlife is rich with a wide variety of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Every autumn the

Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are ...

(''Salmo salar'') migrates from the sea using Loch Oich, Loch Lochy and Loch Ness as their spawning nests.

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scot ...

artificially raised the level of the loch by many feet to provide a navigable channel for the

Well of the Seven Heads

The tall needle-like monument on the banks of Loch Oich at the side of the A82 was erected in 1812 by

Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell Colonel Alexander Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry (15 September 1773 – 17 January 1828), sometimes called by the Gaelic version of his name, Alastair or Alasdair, was clan chief of Clan MacDonell of Glengarry. As was customary for a laird (l ...

to commemorate the

Keppoch murders The Keppoch Murders ( gd, Murt na Ceapaich) is the name given to the murders of Alexander MacDonald, 12th of Keppoch and his brother Ranald by rival claimants to the chieftainship of the MacDonalds of Keppoch. The murders took place on September ...

(Scottish Gaelic: Murt na Ceapaich). It is topped by a sculpture of a hand holding a dagger and seven severed heads. The monument bears an inscription in Gaelic, English, French and Latin that outlines "the ample and summary vengence which, upon the orders of the Lord MacDonnell and Aross, overtook the perpetrators of the foul murder of the Keppoch family, a branch of the powerful and illustrious clan of which his lordship was the Chief". It details how the heads of the seven murderers were cut off with a knife, washed in the nearby burn and then presented at the feet of the MacDonnell chieftain in the nearby

Invergarry Castle Invergarry Castle in the Scottish Highlands was the seat of the Chiefs of the Clan MacDonell of Glengarry, a powerful branch of the Clan Donald. The castle's position overlooking Loch Oich on Creagan an Fhithich – the Raven's Rock – in the ...

. The monument was moved a few yards from its original position in 1930 when the road was reconstructed.

References

External links

1903 Map from the National Library of Scotland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oich, Loch Lochs of Highland (council area) Freshwater lochs of Scotland LOich