Loch Scaven
Loch Sgamhain
Loch Scaven looking west
Loch Scaven
Location	Wester Ross, Scotland
Coordinates	57°31′31″N 5°10′35″W / 57.52528°N 5.17639°W / 57.52528; -5.17639
Type	freshwater loch
Primary inflows	River Carron
Primary outflows	River Carron
Basin countries	Scotland
Max. length	1 mi (1.6 km)[1]
Max. width	0.33 mi (0.53 km)[1]
Surface area	58.7 ha (145 acres)[2]
Average depth	27 ft (8.2 m)[1]
Max. depth	72 ft (22 m)[1]
Water volume	165,000,000 cu ft (4,700,000 m3)[1]
Shore length1	4.6 km (2.9 mi)[2]
Surface elevation	152 m (499 ft)[2]
Islands	2 islets
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Loch Scaven (Scottish Gaelic: Loch Sgamhain) is a small freshwater loch at the head of Glen Carron near the source of the River Carron, Wester Ross, Scotland. It is about 6.4 km (4.0 mi) southwest of Achnasheen and 3.2 km (2.0 mi) upstream from Loch Gowan.

The loch's name derives from a local legend involving a kelpie. The Scottish Gaelic sgamhan means "lungs": according to custom, when a kelpie devoured its unfortunate victim, their lungs would float to the loch's surface.^[3]

The loch tends in a northeast to southwest direction and its shore is relatively simple. At the west end there is a significant promontory known as 'Cnoc nan Sguad' which projects into the loch on the northern shore.

There are two small manmade islands in the centre of Loch Scaven opposite Cnoc nan Sguad. The islands were supposedly built to attract insects for salmon to feed on, and there may have been a house on one in the late-16th century.^[4]

The loch was surveyed on 8 August 1902^[1] by R.M. Clark and James Murray and later charted^[5] as part of the Sir John Murray and Laurence Pullar's Bathymetrical Survey of Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland 1897-1909.

References