page_title: List of lochs of Scotland
section_title: Largest and deepest lochs
hierarchical_section_title: List of lochs of Scotland / Largest and deepest lochs
caption_attribution_description: English: Only half a mile from the sea, Loch Morar is the deepest lake in Britain, over 1000 feet in places. It also is said to be home to a monster named Morag.
context_page_description: This list of lochs in Scotland includes the majority of bodies of standing freshwater named as lochs but only a small selection of the generally smaller, and very numerous, lochans. This list does not currently include the reservoirs of Scotland except where these are modifications of pre-existing lochs and retain the name "loch" or "lochan".
  It has been estimated that there are at least 31,460 freshwater lochs in Scotland, and more than 7,500 in the Western Isles alone. Whilst lochs are widespread throughout the country, they are most numerous within the Scottish Highlands and in particular in the former counties of Caithness, Sutherland and Ross and Cromarty. The majority of the larger lochs are linear in form; their distribution through the West Highlands reflects their origin in the glacial overdeepening of the straths and glens they now occupy.
  Loch is a Scottish Gaelic word for a lake or fjord that has been borrowed by Scots and Scottish English to apply to such bodies of water, especially those in Scotland. Whilst "loch" or "lochan" is by far the most widespread name for bodies of standing water in Scotland, a number of other terms exist.
context_section_description: This table includes the twelve largest lochs by volume, area and length as listed by Murray and Pullar (1910). The volume of water in Loch Ness is nearly double that in all the lakes of England and Wales combined. Murray and Pullar also note that the mean depth of Loch Ness is 57.4% of the maximum depth – higher than in any other large deep loch, with Loch Avich coming closest at 52.4%.
  Lochs Maree, Shiel and Ness are recorded as being the narrowest of the large lochs in relation to their length.
  Neither the Loch of Stenness nor the Loch of Harray on Mainland Orkney are large enough to appear in the above table (Loch of Harray is 16th by area) but at higher stages of the tide they are connected to one another and to the marine waters of Hoy Sound. The former is the largest brackish lagoon in the UK and the latter, whilst predominantly freshwater, does have a transition zone in the vicinity of the Bridge of Brodgar where the two are connected. The two lochs together cover an area of 19.3 km² but have a volume of only 0.047 km³ as they are so shallow. Loch of Stenness has a maximum depth of 5.2 metres (17 ft). Although flow between the two lochs and the sea can be observed, the water levels only change slightly with the movements of the tide.
caption: Loch Morar
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