Castle Loch is a shallow

eutrophic Eutrophication is a general term describing a process in which nutrients accumulate in a body of water, resulting in an increased growth of organisms that may deplete the oxygen in the water; ie. the process of too many plants growing on the s ...

loch covering an area of around 100 hectares in the town of

Lochmaben Lochmaben () is a small town and civil parish in Scotland, and site of a castle. It lies west of Lockerbie, in Dumfries and Galloway. By the 12th century the Bruce family had become the local landowners and, in the 14th century, Edward I of Engl ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway (; ) is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the no ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The ruined

Lochmaben Castle Lochmaben Castle is a ruined castle in the town of Lochmaben, the feudal Lordship of Annandale, Dumfries and Galloway, Annandale, and the united county of Dumfries and Galloway. It was built by Edward I in the 14th century replacing an earlier mo ...

lies at the southern end of the loch.

Wildlife and conservation

Castle Loch is an important over-wintering location for the

pink-footed goose The pink-footed goose (''Anser brachyrhynchus'') is a goose which breeds in eastern Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard, and recently Novaya Zemlya. It is migratory, wintering in northwest Europe, especially Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, a ...

and the goosander. It has been recognised as a wetland of international importance under the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...

, and has been designated a

Site 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 ...

References

Lochs of Dumfries and Galloway Freshwater lochs of Scotland Ramsar sites in Scotland Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Dumfries and Galloway Wetlands of Scotland {{Scotland-SSSI-stub