Loch of Harray
The Loch of Harray is a freshwater lake on Mainland, Orkney's largest island, and it is that island's largest loch. The loch is named for the nearby parish of Harray.
The water lies immediately to the north of the Loch of Stenness, from which it is separated by a narrow isthmus, the Ness of Brodgar, on which are found two of the Neolithic sites forming part of Orkney's World Heritage Site: the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar.
In Old Norse the lake was named Heraðvatn[1] ('Harray Water').
The lake
- Location map: 59.02333 -3.22778
The loch was surveyed on 21 August 1903 by Sir John Murray and later charted [2] as part of the Bathymetrical Survey of Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland 1897-1909. Murray observed that Loch of Harray is a freshwater loch, the largest in all Orkney with an area of approximately 3¾ square miles and volume of 951,000,000 cubic feet and that it is somewhat influenced by the tides in the Hoy Sound although there is little variation in its level. The loch is connected to the Loch of Stenness at the Bridge of Brodgar.[3] The two lochs together cover an area of 7 square miles Murray recorded that despite there being an inlet allowing the free flow of water from the Loch of Stenness it has little impact on the marine biology of Harray and no seaweed was present, the water tasted fresh and normal freshwater plankton were seen.[4]
Natural history
The loch is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and has a large number of pondweed species three of which are scarce, a rare caddis fly (Ylodes reuteri) and is the only known site in the north for a nerite snail Theodoxus fluviatilis which is more commonly found in rivers of the Midlands. A wide variety of wildfowl winter at the loch including pochard, tufted duck, scaup and goldeneye.[5][6]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Loch of Harray) |
References
- ↑ Pedersen, Roy (January 1992) Orkneyjar ok Katanes (map, Inverness, Nevis Print)
- ↑ View, Lochs of Stenness, Harray and Bosquoy - Bathymetrical Survey, 1897-1909 - NLS
- ↑ "Lochs of Harray and Stenness Site of Special Scientific Interest" Midas 1083. SNH
- ↑ Murray, John; Pullar, Laurence (1910). Bathymetrical Survey of Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland during the years 1897 to 1909: report on scientific results. Edinburgh. http://maps.nls.uk/bathymetric/text.cfm?seq=1.
- ↑ "Sites of Special Scientific Interest-SSSI, Orkney, Loch of Harray". 2013-07-29. http://www.orkney.gov.uk/Service-Directory/S/Sites-of-Special-Scientific-Interest-SSSI.htm#lochharray. Retrieved 2013-07-29.
- ↑ "Site Details for Lochs of Harray and Stenness". 2013-07-29. http://gateway.snh.gov.uk/sitelink/siteinfo.jsp?pa_code=1083. Retrieved 2013-07-29.