Lochan Glacan Lochain

The Diary enjoys a walk far more if there is an objective, and more still if the objective leads on to something unexpected. So we set out one weekend before the gale came with no greater intention than to find a lochan perched high on the ridge along which Meall Sanna is the highest point - see map here. The lochan was unremarkable except that the OS 1:25,000 map shows streams flowing downhill from each end of it.

The lochan lies in the valley at the left hand end of the above picture, which looks at the ridge from our starting point, the small township of Achnaha. The going, across thick grass and heather, is hard, particularly if the ground is sodden after heavy rain.

Scrambling up the narrow valley, one comes upon Lochan Glacan Lochain suddenly, its surface at head height. Glacan means small valley, and lochan and lochain have the same meaning, a small lake. Even our resident Gaelic expert couldn't explain the apparent repetition in the name.

What is unexpected is the skyline at the far end of the lochan, very like the edges of the 'infinity pools' of which many tropical hotels are so proud. But this is no tropical paradise. This is a place of bare, grey rocks rounded by the great ice sheet that ground its way across the area over 12,000 years ago. The grass, dead brown in colour and whipped by Atlantic winds which funnel through the gap, barely survives. In this bleak environment, we saw no life except a pippit which chirruped at us for disturbing its loneliness.

It's immediately obvious, from the carefully arranged blocks of rock which form it, that the western, Achnaha end of the lochan is dammed, the outlet once controlled by a blue sluice gate.

The eastern, 'infinity' end has a more substantial dam, so both exits to the lochan are man-made. It's difficult to tell whether there was originally a natural lochan here but, from the lie of the land and the depth of the water, it seems quite likely there was.

But the highlight of this walk came when we approached the far end of the lochan, where the narrow valley plunges downwards toward the sands of Sanna: the valley leads straight to Sanna Beagh, the home built for herself by M. E. M. Donaldson in 1926. Not only did the lochan provided the water supply for the house, it also drove a small turbine to provide electricity.