Loch More (great Loch in Gaelic) is a long

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

loch ''Loch'' ( ) is a word meaning "lake" or "inlet, sea inlet" in Scottish Gaelic, Scottish and Irish Gaelic, subsequently borrowed into English. In Irish contexts, it often appears in the anglicized form "lough". A small loch is sometimes calle ...

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

, Scotland, about east of

Scourie Scourie (), historically spelled "Scoury", is a village on the north west coast of Scotland, about halfway between Ullapool and Durness. The name comes from the Gaelic word Sheiling or shed, a stone-built place of shelter used during the summer ...

.Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, by Francis H. Groome; publ. Thomas C. Jack, Edinburgh,1901. (Article on Eddrachillis) It is part of a series of inter-connecting lochs and rivers that empty into Loch Laxford, which is a sea loch, the "ford" in the name meaning a

firth Firth is a word in the English and Scots languages used to denote various coastal waters in the United Kingdom, predominantly within Scotland. In the Northern Isles, it more often refers to a smaller inlet. It is linguistically cognate to Scan ...

not a

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Place-names of Scotland, by James B. Johnston, B.D., publ. David Douglas, Edinburgh, 1892; p. 164. Note: Laxford is Old Norse lax or lachs (salmon) and fjord (firth) This drainage area, named the Laxford basin,Bathymetrical Survey of the Scottish Fresh-Water Lochs, ed. Sir John Murray K.C.B., F.R.S., D.Sc., and Laurence Pullar F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S., publ. Challenger Office, Edinburgh, 1910; Vol II, part 2, pp. 424-428 lies in the southern part of the civil parish of

Eddrachillis Eddrachillis is a civil parish in north-west Sutherland, Scotland. In Gaelic (Eadar dha Chaolais) it means: between two firths. For local government, it forms part of the Highland Unitary Authority. It is about 28 miles long and encompasses ...

(community council

). The loch has a north-west to south-east orientation and is about above sea level. At the south-east end, it is close to the watershed between the west and east coast of Scotland, being about 2 miles from

Loch Merkland Loch Merkland is a large long inland loch in Sutherland, Northern Scotland. It is located adjacent to the A838 main road which provides almost all access to the Loch and the Merkland Lodge to the south of it. There are many trails and hiking pat ...

which drains into the

Loch Shin Loch Shin (, ) is a loch in the Scottish North West Highlands. To the south is the town of Lairg. The loch, the largest in Sutherland, runs from the north-west to the south-east and is long. In the 1950s, the level of the loch was raised by ov ...

basin and thence into the

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; , or ) is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of the north of Scotland. It is the largest firth in Scotland, stretching from Duncans ...

. At the north-west end, there is a connecting loch, named Loch nan Ealachan (Loch of the Swans) or (prior to c.1910) Loch na h-Ealaidh (Swan Loch).1 inch to 1 mile 7th Series Sheet 9 Cape Wrath; publ. by Ordnance Survey, Chessington, Surrey,1959Gaelic origins of place names in Britain - getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/guides/the-gaelic-origins-of-place-names-in-britain - produced by

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

- retrieved Feb.2024 The width of Loch More is remarkably uniform, just under half a mile. Its surface area is and its catchment area is about , just over a quarter of the Laxford basin drainage area, which is about . The average depth is about reaching a maximum of about in the centre and the volume of water has been estimated at . Loch nan Ealachan is a shallow basin up to deep joined to the main loch by a strait about deep, called Ùidh Dhubh (black ford). This is traversed by a path with stepping stones. The volume of water has been estimated at . The outflow from Loch More (together with Loch nan Ealachan) is carried by the small river An Earachd, from the north end of Loch nan Ealachan into

Loch Stack Loch Stack is a large, irregularly shaped freshwater loch in the Northwest of Scotland. It lies approximately southeast of Laxford Bridge and is surrounded by mountains. Ben Stack rises steeply from the loch's southwestern shore and Arkle (Suthe ...

, which is about north of Loch More. Ben Stack (), which rises steeply from the south side of Loch Stack, extends with a lesser incline as far as the hamlet of

Achfary Achfary () is a hamlet in the Scotland, Scottish council area of Highland Council area, Highland. To the east of the village lies Loch nan Ealachan. It is owned by the Grosvenor Estate (the Duke of Westminster) and is renowned for its unusual b ...

( ), by the shore of Loch nan Ealachan. The outflow from Loch Stack is the River Laxford, which reaches the sea at Loch Laxford. There is no village adjacent to the loch apart from the hamlet of Achfary, alongside Loch nan Ealachan.

References

{{Reflist Lochs of Sutherland