Loch Treig is a deep

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 ...

situated in a steep-sided

glen A glen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. The word is Goidelic in origin: ''gleann'' in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, ''glion'' in Manx. ...

20km east of Fort William, in

Lochaber Lochaber ( ; ) is a name applied to a part of the Scottish Highlands. Historically, it was a provincial lordship consisting of the parishes of Kilmallie and Kilmonivaig. Lochaber once extended from the Northern shore of Loch Leven, a distric ...

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

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 ...

. While there are no roads alongside the loch, the

West Highland Line The West Highland Line ( – "Iron Road to the Isles") is a railway line linking the ports of Mallaig and Oban in the Scottish Highlands to Glasgow in Central Scotland. The line was voted the top rail journey in the world by readers of indepen ...

follows its eastern bank. Loch Treig was originally a natural freshwater loch over 400 feet deep. In 1929, Loch Treig was made into a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

, retained behind the Treig Dam, forming part of the Lochaber hydro-electric scheme, which required diversion of the West Highland Railway. The increase in water level following the construction of the dam submerged the hamlets of Kinlochtreig and Creaguaineach at the loch's southern end, which were stopping points on a cattle

drovers' road A drovers' road, drove road, droveway, or simply a drove, is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to marketplace, market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were anci ...

along the Road to the Isles, which linked up Lochaber and the Inner Hebrides to markets in Perthshire in the south. Ken Smith (b. 1947), a self-described

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

, has lived alone in a rough cabin on the shore of Loch Treig for forty years. He was profiled in the documentary '' The Hermit of Treig'' (2022), and wrote the memoir ''The Way of the Hermit'' (2023). Laura Miller opined in 2024, he "may be the most famous living hermit in Great Britain".

References

{{authority control Treig Treig Lochaber Treig Lochs of Lochaber

See also

References