Loch Rannoch

What can the eye and the mind’s eye see from the Beach at Kinloch Rannoch?

Standing on the beach near Kinloch Rannoch (the name is misleading in that Kinloch means head of the loch) you can gaze westwards along the kaleidoscope of Loch Rannoch to distant Glencoe where Buachaile Etive Mhor stood witness to the massacre of the Macdonald's by the Campbells on the 13th of February 1692. There is much more to ponder here than massacres, however.

Ten thousand years ago the ice was 2000 feet high on Rannoch Moor and flowing east. You would have been submerged and crushed beneath a towering glacier grinding relentlessly towards the, yet to be established town, of Pitlochry. The ice smashed through the ridges, which at the time descended into the valley and the truncated spurs of Craig Varr and the Sleeping Giant were born. When the glaciers retreated and melted moraine was dumped upon the beach on which you stand. It leads in a gorse covered band towards the village. The ribbon loch that is Loch Rannoch was lower then and as time passed, the slopes of the strath became clothed in Caledonian pine forest. There's not much left now but look down the loch and you can see the dark form of the Black Wood of Rannoch where it clings on to the southern shore defying the axe.

The pebbles beneath your feet are a concatenation of the geology - to the west Rannoch Moor is constructed of Granodiorite (a granite-like rock), the valley sides are largely schist with felsite and limestone here and there. The pebbles have been smoothed by water powered agitation over the millennia.

Beneath the surface of the loch lies a complex and mostly unexplored ecosystem with four morphs of Charr, ranging from surface dwelling to bottom dwelling forms. These fish have been in the loch since the last ice age and have evolved in isolation from other such populations. In Scandinavia and Iceland Charr migrate between the sea and freshwater. Here they do not as they have been robbed of the opportunity by being land locked. Close by is an erudite noticeboard, prepared by the Faskally Fisheries Research Laboratory in conjunction with the Loch Rannoch Conservation Association which informs about the Charr. Other fish which inhabit the loch include trout, pike, perch, sticklebacks and eels. Some trout start to eat other fish and become what is know as ferrox trout which can be huge and are certainly ugly with a hooked jaw.

The loch has many moods. It can be a millpond; it can emulate the Atlantic with white horses and waves crashing onto the shore; it can mirror the hills and contain the moon in reflection; it can have sinister streaks and swirling deeps; it can be cold, even frozen and occasionally even warm, if only at the edges.

Once in Victorian times there was a tourist boat, called the Gitana (which means gipsy) that was moored off the beach. Storms came and dashed it upon the beach. It was dragged off but another storm bashed in the windows and it sank. In 1977 it was raised and attempts made to restore it but the same thing happened, a storm drove it onto the beach and this time it was destroyed.

See the following link for details.

http://www.perthshirediary.com/html/day0607.html

The Loch is shallowest at the Bridge of Gaur end where the river Gaur enters. It's deepest point is a couple of miles west of Kinloch Rannoch where it is about 360 feet deep. One of the best ways to see the loch is to be an eagle! Elite falconry have taken a, aerial video film using a camera attached to their White-Tailed Sea Eagle, Marra who flies over the west end of the loch.

See link-

http://www.elitefalconry.com/video-gallery/

In the present day the trees that cover the slopes of the Glen are largely birch, which is a pioneer species able to quickly colonise bare areas. These woods are home to wood warblers and redstarts. Still we have cuckoos that cuckoo in spring and early summer and Buzzards mew all year. Over Craig Varr peregrines stoop and emphatically conquer. On the loch, goldeneye draw white lines in the water as they take off. Eventually if nature were left to its own devices the Caledonian Pine Forest or something like it would return. We can't be sure, of course, because we now have a warming climate and we also have introduced tree species such as the huge Wellingtonias planted for Queen Victoria's jubilee. The Wellingtonia is a type of American Redwood.

As you stand on the beach you can turn your back to the water and face towards the abandoned village of Bunrannoch, the ruins of which lie beneath the Sleeping Giant. The area was once used as a golf course. Closer by is the war memorial and the Rannoch Smokery, the latter started by the Innerhadden Estate. It provides valuable local employment.

The area of the beach is a popular wild camping area, sometimes causing problems when people are not responsible. A minority leave litter and damage trees. This is a pity for the responsible campers and for the long standing tradition.

In recent years numbers of young stags have taken to wandering around the village and are tame to a surprising degree. They frequent the fields around the manse and the triangle. In autumn the roaring of stags echoes round the hills and the consciousness.

It used to be that the loch was about 15 feet lower before the Hydro dam of the 1950’s - then there were two outflows. The southern one was blocked to allow the water to be controlled but the river channel lives on in the form of a marshy channel that passes close to the smokery and then on across the Innerhadden fields to cross the road that leads to Schiehallion. The wet ground is beloved by amphibians and orchids.

Looking north west you will see the Loch Rannoch Hotel and the Time-Share Lodges, standing out as somewhat incongruous white buildings beneath a hillside of birch.

Sometimes the sunsets over the loch are unrivalled - red suffuses the sky and the observer can only marvel at the almost unbelievable beauty.

Like the pebbles on the beach thoughts concatenate while the feet crunch the shingle.