Loch Watten is a loch in the
River Wick drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
in
Caithness
Caithness (; ; ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Scotland.
There are two towns, being Wick, Caithness, Wick, which was the county town, and Thurso. The count ...
, Scotland.
The name is a
tautology, consisting of the word "
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 ...
" (of Gaelic origin) and ''vatn'', a
Norse word meaning the very same, found in such names as "
Þingvallavatn
Þingvallavatn (, ), anglicised as Thingvallavatn, is a rift valley lake in southwestern Iceland. With a surface of 84 km2 it is the largest natural lake in Iceland. Its greatest depth is 114 m. At the northern shore of the lake, at Þingvellir ( ...
" and
Myvatn in
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
, and "
Røssvatnet" and "
Møsvatn
Møsvatn or Møsvann is a lake in Vinje Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is the tenth-largest lake in Norway with a surface area of and a volume of . The lake lies just east of the Hardangervidda National Park, in Skien watershed ...
" in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
.
It is well known as a good fly fishing loch for
brown trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...
with the local village
Watten being located to the south
References
External links
Watten
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Caithness
Freshwater lochs of Scotland
{{Caithness-geo-stub