Loch Coruisk

Infobox lake
lake_name = Loch Coruisk
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location = Isle of Skye, Highlands, Scotland
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Loch Coruisk (in Scottish Gaelic, "Coire Uisg", the "Cauldron of Waters") is an inland fresh-water lake, lying at the foot of the Black Cuillin in the Isle of Skye, in the Scottish Highlands.

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.

Literature

Sir Walter Scott visited the loch in 1814 and described it vividly: ["The Lord of the Isles" (1815)] ::“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.” [Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Impressions of Scotland" (1848)]

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)

References