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Linlithgow Loch lies immediately north of the town of Linlithgow in
West Lothian Council. NB: the Hatchery Burn is shown unlabelled in the top right corner of the map. and drained by the Mill Burn on its western side, which eventually joins the
Linlithgow Loch was once famed for its
Map, with depths
Linlithgow Loch lies immediately north of the town of Linlithgow in West Lothian
West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its shires of Scotland, historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geogra ...
, Scotland. 1.3 kilometres in length and 0.4 in breadth, its area of 41 hectares makes it the largest natural freshwater loch in Lothian
Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...
. It is, however, shallow, with a mean depth of 2.3 metres and a maximum depth of 9.2 metres. The loch is fed by four small streams, the Hatchery Burn, the Bonnytoun Burn, the Springfield Burn, and Bell's Burn,"Linlithgow Loch and its wildlife"West Lothian Council. NB: the Hatchery Burn is shown unlabelled in the top right corner of the map. and drained by the Mill Burn on its western side, which eventually joins the
Avon
Avon may refer to:
* River Avon (disambiguation), several rivers
Organisations
*Avon Buses, a bus operating company in Wirral, England
*Avon Coachworks, a car body builder established in 1919 at Warwick, England, relaunched in 1922, following ...
.
The loch is the source of the town of Linlithgow's name; the British ''llyn laith cau'' translates to "lake in the damp hollow". Two islets in the loch, Cormorant Island and the Rickle, are thought to be the 5,000 year old remains of crannogs.
Fishing and boating
Linlithgow Loch was once famed for its brown trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...
, but most of the sport today comes from stocked rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...
, regularly released by the Forth Area Federation of Anglers.
The Low Port Centre, which was run by West Lothian Leisure, provided facilities for sailing, canoeing, kayaking, and windsurfing on the loch prior to the closure of the building in 2021. The future of the LPC site is currently uncertain.
Conservation
Urban and agricultural runoff make eutrophication a concern. Algal blooms have affected the loch's value for wildlife and recreation. Linlithgow Loch is aSite of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
due to it being an example of a lowland eutrophic loch and supporting representative examples of aquatic and emergent plant communities.
External links
Map, with depths
References
{{reflist Lochs of West Lothian Protected areas of West Lothian Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Scotland Linlithgow Freshwater lochs of Scotland