Loch Shin (, ) is a
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 ...
in the Scottish North West
Highlands. To the south is the town of
Lairg. The loch, the largest in
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 ...
, runs from the north-west to the south-east and is long.
In the 1950s, the level of the loch was raised by over by the construction of Lairg Dam by
Wimpey Construction as part of a
hydro-electric scheme.
[White, p. 32]
Around the loch there are mountain ranges; the
Ben More Assynt in the west and
Ben Klibreck () to the east. The loch drains to the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
by way of the short
River Shin
The River Shin (, ) is a river in the Scottish North West Highlands.
The river flows from the southern end of Loch Shin, next to the village of Lairg. It flows in a generally southward direction, passing by Shin Forest and over the Falls of Shi ...
that feeds into the
Dornoch Firth at
Bonar Bridge.
Three miles to the north of Lairg is a monument in remembrance of an early attempt to tame the
Highlands. The area around the loch is a centre for sheep farming in
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 ...
.
References
Sources
*
External links
*
Loch Shin Hydro Scheme*
Shin
Landforms of Sutherland
LShin
Lochs of Sutherland
{{Sutherland-geo-stub