Loch Coruisk
| Loch Coruisk | |
|---|---|
 |
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| As painted by Sidney Richard Percy | |
| Location | Isle of Skye, Highlands, Scotland |
| Coordinates | 57°12′27″N 6°10′08″W / 57.2074°N 6.1690°WCoordinates: 57°12′27″N 6°10′08″W / 57.2074°N 6.1690°W |
| Lake type | freshwater loch |
| Basin countries | United Kingdom |
Loch Coruisk (in Scottish Gaelic, Coire Uisg, the "Cauldron of Waters") is an inland fresh-water loch, lying at the foot of the Black Cuillin in the Isle of Skye, in the Scottish Highlands.
Contents |
[edit] Geography
The loch is accessible by boat from Elgol, or on foot from Sligachan (approximately 7–8 miles’ distance). It is also possible to walk from Elgol, but one section of the path (“the Bad Step”) presents some potential difficulties for the nervous or inexperienced.
The northern end of the loch is ringed by the Black Cuillin, often wreathed in cloud. From the southern end a small rivulet, approximately 250 yards long, discharges into a sea loch, Loch Scavaig. The loch is nearly two miles long, but only a couple of hundred yards wide.
[edit] Literature
Sir Walter Scott visited the loch in 1814 and described it vividly:[1]
- “Rarely human eye has known
- A scene so stern as that dread lake,
- With its dark ledge of barren stone...”
Lord Tennyson reported more prosaically:
- “Loch Coruisk, said to be the wildest scene in the Highlands, I failed in seeing. After a fatiguing expedition over the roughest ground on a wet day we arrived at the banks of the loch, and made acquaintance with the extremest tiptoes of the hills, all else being thick wool-white fog.”[2]
Mark Haddon used the remote location of the loch for a portal in the 1992 children's novel Gridzbi Spudvetch!, re-issued in 2009 as Boom!. A description of the path from Elgol (including a traverse of The Bad Step) is included in the narrative, as is the Memorial Hut. [3][4]
[edit] Art
The loch has been painted by, among many others, William Daniell (1769–1837), J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851), Sidney Richard Percy (1821–1886) and Alexander Francis Lydon (1836–1917)
[edit] References
- ^ The Lord of the Isles (1815)
- ^ Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Impressions of Scotland (1848)
- ^ Haddon, Mark (1994). Gridzbi Spudvetch!. Walker Books Ltd. p. 110-130. ISBN 0744531721.
- ^ Haddon, Mark (2009). Boom!. David Fickling Books. p. 110-130. ISBN 0385616295.
