Lochaline () is the main village in the

Morvern Morvern ( ; "the sea-gap"), historically also spelt Morven, is a peninsula and traditional district in the Highlands, on the west coast of Scotland. It lies south of the districts of Ardgour and Sunart, and is bounded on the north by Loch Su ...

area of

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 ...

. The coastal village is situated at the mouth of

Loch Aline Loch Aline (Scottish Gaelic: ''Loch Àlainn'') is a small Seawater, salt water loch home to fish, birds and game, located in Morvern, Lochaber, Scotland. Key features of interest are Kinlochaline Castle, Ardtornish Castle and the Ardtornish est ...

, on the northern shore of the Sound of Mull. A ferry operates regularly over to

Fishnish Fishnish () is a ferry terminal on the Isle of Mull, roughly halfway between Tobermory and Craignure. It is owned and operated by Caledonian MacBrayne Caledonian MacBrayne (), in short form CalMac, is the trade name of CalMac Ferries Ltd, t ...

on the

Isle of Mull The Isle of Mull or simply Mull ( ) is the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides (after Skye) and lies off the west coast of Scotland in the Council areas of Scotland, council area of Argyll and Bute. Covering , Mull is the fourth-lar ...

Population

The current population of Lochaline is around 200 people. In 1930, some Gaelic-speaking residents of the archipelago of St Kilda were evacuated by Williamina Barclay and relocated to Lochaline. Many of them lived and settled in Lochaline, although with some difficulty. Lochaline hotel 2014

Transport

A regular ferry operated by

Caledonian MacBrayne Caledonian MacBrayne (), in short form CalMac, is the trade name of CalMac Ferries Ltd, the major operator of passenger and vehicle ferries to the west coast of Scotland, serving ports on the mainland and 22 of the major islands. It is a subsid ...

runs over to

on the

. The ferry takes only about 20 minutes, runs multiple times a day, and day trips from Lochaline are possible. There is also an infrequent bus service, 507, operated by Shiel Buses – this runs Tuesdays and Thursdays to Fort William in the morning, returning mid-afternoon. Additional journeys are run as far as Ardnamurchan High School on schooldays only.

Facilities

The village's facilities include a grocery shop, post office, petrol station, hotel, restaurant, social club, marina, snack bar and public conveniences. Kiel Church Lochaline 2014

The Lochaline hotel, with its beach, has views of the

Sound of Mull The Sound of Mull is a sound between the Inner Hebridean island of Mull and mainland Scotland. It forms part of the Atlantic Ocean. The Sound of Mull Project is a Scottish Sustainable Marine Environment Initiative (SSMEI) spatial plan of Argy ...

and the ruins of the old

Ardtornish castle Ardtornish Castle is a castle situated in the grounds of the Ardtornish estate in Morvern, on the west coast of Scotland. It stands at the seaward end of a promontory which extends in a southerly direction into the Sound of Mull, about south- ...

Local attractions

The village is popular with divers, as it is close to the wrecks of the

, with several charter boats available locally.

Kiel Church

Set in trees overlooking the

, Kiel Church with a graveyard is one mile away from Lochaline. The interior of the 19th-century church is plain with a braced timber roof. More than 17 medieval carved gravestones are displayed in the church. They are a reminder of the late medieval flowering of

Gaelic culture The Gaels ( ; ; ; ) are an Insular Celtic ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic ...

associated with the

Lordship of the Isles Lord of the Isles or King of the Isles ( or ; ) is a title of nobility in the Baronage of Scotland with historical roots that go back beyond the Kingdom of Scotland. It began with Somerled in the 12th century and thereafter the title was h ...

. Designs include swords, ships and hunting scenes. Other fragments of medieval stones lay in the graveyard, including a six-hundred-year-old cross. Kiel takes its name from Cille Choluimchille, the religious cell or monastery of

St Columba Columba () or Colmcille (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey ...

'Of the Church' who travelled through Northern Scotland in the 6th-century A.D. with news of the Christian gospel and who built the first church here, as the tradition has it.

Ardtornish Estate

Ardtornish Estate spreads out around the bay of

. The gardens of Ardtornish House are open to the public and include native and exotic plants and trees.

Ardtornish Castle

The castle was one of the principal seats of the high chiefs of

Clan Donald Clan Donald, also known as Clan MacDonald or Clan McDonald ( ), is a Highland Scottish clan and one of the largest Scottish clans. Historically the chiefs of the Clan Donald held the title of Lord of the Isles until 1493 and two of those chiefs a ...

from the early 14th to late 15th century, but Somerled had a fortress here in the mid-12th century. Ardtornish was the hub of strategic sea lanes vital to him. Later, it was at Ardtornish Castle that

John of Islay, Lord of the Isles John of Islay (or John MacDonald) ( or ) (died 1386) was the lord of the Isles (1336–1386) and chief of Clan Donald. In 1336, he styled himself ''Dominus Insularum'' ('Lord of the Isles'), although this was not the first ever recorded instan ...

, 6th chief of Clan Donald died in the 1380s and from where his funeral procession sailed through the Sound of Mull to the island of

Iona Iona (; , sometimes simply ''Ì'') is an island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there are other buildings on the island. Iona Abbey was a centre of Gaeli ...

. The castle was probably abandoned around the end of the seventeenth century, by which time the Campbell

Earls of Argyll Duke of Argyll () is a title created in the peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The earls, marquesses, and dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most pow ...

had captured Ardtornish and the other Morvern estates of the MacLeans.

Walking trails

The area around the village contains a number of walking paths. These include the coastal walks (the Kinlochaline Low Road and Ardtornish Castle Walk) along the shores of

, a small salt water loch, home to fish and birds.

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 ...

is the Scottish Gaelic word for a fresh water body or a sea inlet.

Geology

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

mine has been in Lochaline since 1940, when it was opened to replace sources of silica lost because of World War II. A source was needed for the manufacture of optical quality glass. In November 2008, the announcement was made about closing the mine. In September 2012, the mine re-opened under a new company Lochaline Quartz Sand Ltd, a joint venture between the Italian mining company Minerali Industriali and glass manufacturer NSG. The silica quartz and other minerals came from the erosion of the Scottish landmass. They were deposited on the shore of a tropical sea on

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

shales and limestones in the middle of the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

period, 93 million years ago, at the same time, the chalk

cliffs of Dover The White Cliffs of Dover are the region of English coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliff face, which reaches a height of , owes its striking appearance to its composition of chalk accented by streaks of black flint, depos ...

were forming. Frequent changes to sea level reworked the sandy sediment. Natural winnowing processes sorted the quartz from other minerals, separating grains of similar size. For 60 million years, this was protected from erosion by a basalt covering from the Mull volcano. Near the loch shoreline, today are fossil oysters, or

Gryphaea ''Gryphaea'', one of the genera known as devil's toenails, is a genus of extinct oysters, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Gryphaeidae. These fossils range from the Triassic period to the middle Paleogene period, but are mostly restricte ...

, that lived on the shoreline of a tropical sea here 200 million years ago.''The Evolution of Gryphaea'', Stephen Jay Gould, 1980. The rocks in this layer are the same age as the

Jurassic Coast The Jurassic Coast, also known as the Dorset and East Devon Coast, is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about , and was ins ...

in Dorset. Lochaline

References

{{Lochaber Populated places in Lochaber Ports and harbours of Scotland Morvern