Loch Shurrery (also known as Loch Shurrey) is a small, shallow, lowland freshwater

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 ...

lying approximately south west of

Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; , ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Great Britain. From a latitudinal s ...

in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

. The loch has a somewhat elliptical shape with a perimeter of . It is approximately long, has an average depth of and is at its deepest. The loch was surveyed on 6 October 1902 by John Parsons and T.R.H. Garrett and later charted as part of Sir John Murray's ''Bathymetrical Survey of Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland 1897-1909''. A dam lies to the north end of the loch. Approximately from the northern end of the loch are the

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

remains of an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

hut circle In archaeology, a hut circle is a circular or oval depression in the ground which may or may not have a low stone wall around it that used to be the foundation of a round house. The superstructure of such a house would have been made of timber an ...

with a medium-sized oval house. Some pottery was found at the site. At the southern end of the loch is ''Lambsdale Leans'', a

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

with possible

cist In archeology, a cist (; also kist ; ultimately from ; cognate to ) or cist grave is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. In some ways, it is similar to the deeper shaft tomb. Examples occur ac ...

or chamber. Two

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

graves lie nearby. The loch is used for fishing and the ''Dounreay Fly Fishing Association'' keeps a boat on the loch for members and visitors.

References

{{reflist Shurrery Shurrery Caithness