Loch Indaal (or Lochindaal) 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 sp ...
on
Islay
Islay ( ; gd, Ìle, sco, Ila) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll just south west of Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The island's capital ...
, the southernmost island of the
Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebri ...
, off the west coast of Scotland. Together with
Loch Gruinart to the north, it was formed by the Loch Gruinart Fault, which branches off the
Great Glen Fault
The Great Glen Fault is a strike-slip fault that runs through the Great Glen in Scotland. The fault is mostly inactive today, but occasional moderate tremors have been recorded over the past 150 years.
Location
Aligned northeast to southwest, t ...
.
Along the northwestern coast are the villages of
Bruichladdich and
Port Charlotte. Along its northeastern shore is the tiny village of
Bridgend
Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the medieval bridge over the River Og ...
and on its southeastern shore is the island capital of
Bowmore
Bowmore ( gd, Bogh Mòr, 'Big Bend') is a small town on the Scottish island of Islay. It serves as administrative capital of the island, and gives its name to the noted Bowmore distillery producing Bowmore single malt scotch whisky.
History
...
.
At night the lights of the villages along the three sides of the loch inspired the well-known folk song "The Lights of Lochindaal" by Iain Simpson.
South of Bowmore the entire coastline is a six-mile-long sandy beach stretching to Kintra. This beach, known as the Big Strand, is very popular with holidaymakers and locals alike in the summer.
Waters
Loch Indaal slopes gently from its NE corner down to its opening into the Atlantic.
[Admiralty Chart 2168 Approaches to the Sound of Jura available fro]
Admiralty on line catalogue
/ref> At the mouth of the loch, which lies between Portnahaven
Portnahaven ( gd, Port na h-Abhainne, meaning river port) is a village on Islay in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. The village is within the parish of Kilchoman. In 1991 it had a population of 150.
It is located at the southern tip of the Rinns ...
to the north and the American Monument on The Oa to the south, the depth is around 40 metres, rising steadily upwards towards the northeast and reaching a depth of barely 10 metres between Laggan Point and Port Charlotte.
The waters of the loch are calm and safe but the approaches are hazardous especially for small vessels. There are tidal streams, eddies, races and heavy overfalls both in the east and west flowing streams of the tide.
The Big Strand and Laggan Bay
The eastern shore of the loch is taken up by the six mile length of the Big Strand, the area as a whole being known as Laggan Bay. The Big Strand itself is sandy along its whole length being broken by a rocky outcrop roughly half way along its length at Glenegedale Airport.
In the north the Big Strand is accessible by car along a stretch of unmade road leading from Island farm, on a road signed off the A846 south of Bowmore. The river Laggan empties into the ocean near the northern point of the beach. In the south the Big Strand is accessible from Kintra Farm on the Oa.
Glenegedale Airport has two runways, although one is not in use. The approach from to the northwest runway takes aircraft over Lochindaal at very low altitude giving excellent views of Laggan Bay.
See also
* List of lighthouses in Scotland
This is a list of lighthouses in Scotland. The Northern Lighthouse Board, from which much of the information is derived, are responsible for most lighthouses in Scotland but have handed over responsibility in the major estuaries to the port aut ...
* List of Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouses
This is a list of the currently operational lighthouses of the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB). The list is divided by geographical location, and then by whether the lighthouses are classed by the NLB as a 'major lighthouse' or a 'minor light'. F ...
Gallery
File:Loch Indaal, Islay - geograph.org.uk - 81956.jpg, Looking west across the loch to the Rinns at low tide
File:Port Charlotte - Loch Indaal.jpg, Looking north from Port Charlotte across the loch to Jura
File:Bigstrand.jpg, The Big Strand
File:Towards Traigh Cill an Rubha - geograph.org.uk - 1163378.jpg, Towards Traigh Cill an Rubha Looking across the head of Loch Indaal in late afternoon
File:The Shore At Gortan, Loch Indaal - geograph.org.uk - 699390.jpg, The shore at Gortan, Loch Indaal looking along the edge of the shore at low tide
References
External links
Northern Lighthouse Board
{{Lighthouse identifiers , qid2=Q29037510
Landforms of Islay
Indaal
Indaal