St Mary's Loch is the largest natural

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 Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

, and is situated on the south side of the

A708 road A7, A.7, A 7, A07 or A-7 may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * A7, the A dominant seventh chord used in many rock songs, see dominant seventh chord * A (musical note) * ''A7'' (mixtape), by SCH, 2015 * Avenged Sevenfold, a hard rock/meta ...

between Selkirk and

Moffat Moffat is a burgh and parish in Dumfriesshire. Part of the Dumfries and Galloway local authority area in Scotland, it lies on the River Annan, with a population of around 2,500. It was a centre of the wool trade and a spa town. Moffat is arou ...

, about south of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Description

It is long and wide, and was created by

glacial A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

action during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

. The loch is fed by the Megget Water, which flows in from the

Megget Reservoir Megget Reservoir is an impounding reservoir in the Megget valley in Ettrick Forest, in the Scottish Borders. The reservoir is held back by the largest earth dam in Scotland. The reservoir collects water from the Tweedsmuir Hills, which is then ...

, and is the source of the

Yarrow Water The Yarrow Water is a river in the Scottish Borders, Borders in the south east of Scotland. It is a tributary of the Ettrick Water (itself a tributary of the River Tweed, Tweed) and renowned for its high quality trout and salmon, salmon fishing.< ...

, which flows east from the loch to merge with the

Ettrick Water The Ettrick Water is a river in Ettrick, by the village of Ettrickbridge and the historic town of Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. The water, a tributary of the River Tweed, is known also as the River Ettrick, often locally ...

above Selkirk. It connects by a short section of river to the Loch of the Lowes, immediately to the south. Between the two, connected by an old arched bridge, is

Tibbie Shiel Tibbie Shiel (1783–1878) was a Scottish inn keeper who ran Tibbie Shiel's Inn on St Mary's Loch in the Scottish Borders and was known to many authors and poets, and the subject of numerous literary works. Life She was born Isabella Shi ...

's Inn, an 18th-century

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of t ...

, which was frequented by the Border poet

James Hogg James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots language, Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a ...

(1770–1835). The inn is now privately owned. A statue of James Hogg is located opposite the turning to the former inn. The loch takes its name from a church dedicated to St Mary which once stood on its northern shore, although only the burial ground is now visible. The loch is around 27 metres deep at its centre.Edinburgh and its Environs: Ward Lock Travel Guide 1939 As the loch is sheltered by steep hills on all sides it is often very still, providing excellent reflections in its waters. The

Southern Upland Way The Southern Upland Way is a coast-to-coast long-distance footpath in southern Scotland. The route links Portpatrick in the west and Cockburnspath in the east via the hills of the Southern Uplands. The Way is designated as one of Scotland's ...

and

Sir Walter Scott Way The Sir Walter Scott Way is a long-distance footpath in the Scottish Borders. The route broadly follows the waymarked Southern Upland Way, except for in a few sections. It commemorates Sir Walter Scott, one of Scotland's most renowned writers, wh ...

long-distance walking routes both pass the shores of the loch. The small settlement of Cappercleuch is located at the north-west corner of the loch.

Sport

St Mary's Loch Sailing Club (StMLSC) is run from premises at the south end of the loch (east of Tibbie Shiels). It is affiliated to the

Royal Yachting Association The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is a United Kingdom national governing body for sailing, dinghy sailing, yacht and motor cruising, sail racing, RIBs and sportsboats, windsurfing and personal watercraft and a leading representative for i ...

. Brown trout, pike, perch and eels are all found within the loch and its smaller neighbour, Loch of the Lowes. Arctic charr once also populated the loch but exploitation likely led to their disappearance before the mid-18th century.Maitland P. S. (n.d.) The status of Arctic Charr, ''Salvelinus alpinus'' (L), in southern Scotland: A cause for concern. Fish Conservation Centre: Stirling.

Literary references

Many of the 71 Noctes Ambrosianae in

Blackwood's Magazine ''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by publisher William Blackwood and originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine'', but quickly relaunched as ''Blackwood's Edinb ...

refer to Tibbie Shiel's Inn and St Mary's Loch. Tibbie Shiel aka Tibbie Richardson died in 1878 aged 95. Also mentioned in William Wordsworth's poem, " Yarrow Unvisited":

References

External links

* {{Authority control Freshwater lochs of Scotland Lochs of the Scottish Borders Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Tweeddale and Ettrick and Lauderdale Yarrow Valley LStMarys

Description

Sport

Literary references

See also

References

External links