Loch Etive
| Loch Etive | ||
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 Loch Etive as seen from Sron nam Feannag, looking northeast |
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| Waters | Lynn of Lorn ( Firth of Lorn ) | |
| Land mass | Great Britain (island) | |
| Geographical location | 56 ° 30 ′ N , 5 ° 9 ′ W | |
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| width | 1.6 km | |
| length | 31.6 km | |
| Greatest water depth | 200 m | |
| Tributaries | River Etive , River Awe | |
 Reflections on Loch Etive |
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Loch Etive ( Scottish Gaelic , Loch Eite ) is a 31.6 km long fjord in the Scottish Argyll and Bute . It flows into the wide sound between the Scottish mainland and the Isle of Mull at Connel , 5 km north of Oban . Loch Etive is between 1.2 km and 1.6 km wide and up to 200 m deep.
The name Etive probably means "little ugly", after the name of a Gaelic deity who was associated with the fjord.
geography
The Falls of Lora form at the spring tide at the narrow mouth of Loch Etive . From there, the A85 road and the railway accompany the fjord on the south bank to the mouth of the River Awe . Then these traffic routes follow the course of the river to the south-east, while the fjord bends to the north-east into uninhabited mountainous areas. The River Etive flows into the head of the lake . A road from Glen Coe provides access along this stream.
A part of the North Shore is a nature reserve, as a Special Area of Conservation ( Special Area of Conservation (SAC) designated). The old sessile oak forests in particular should be protected in this way. Loch Etive serves as a territory for a small colony of around 20 seals .
Architectural monuments
Just below the mouth of the loch is Dunstaffnage Castle , a castle of the kingdom of Dál Riata until the 9th century . It may even have been its center for a time and housed the Scone Stone before it was brought to Scone Palace . The current remains of the wall date from 1275. From 1881 there were tours from the castle for holidaymakers in Oban, which was then fashionable as a holiday destination: boat trips led to the upper end of Loch Etive, followed by carriage rides to Glen Coe.
A few hundred meters from the castle is the medieval church ruin Dunstaffnage Chapel .
The Connel Bridge , a cantilever steel bridge over the Falls of Lora, was initially built as a railway bridge in 1903. From 1914 it served both as a road and rail bridge; road vehicles and trains had to take turns using the narrow bridge. Since 1966 it has been used exclusively as a road bridge, which is still single-lane.
In the parish of Ardchattan on the north bank is the picturesque ruin of St. Modan's Priory monastery . It was founded in the 13th century by the Cistercian monks of the Abbaye du Val des Choues . According to tradition, the last parliament met there in Gaelic under Robert the Bruce .
On the Ardmucknish Bay on the sea side outside of Loch Etive is the stoneware clad Beregonium Castle , which must not be confused with Rerigonium on Loch Ryan , the city of the Novantae tribe . The confusion arose from a typographical error in an early edition of Ptolemy 's Atlas Geographike Hyphegesis .
Ship name
The iron-hulled sailor on which Joseph Conrad served is named after Loch Etive .
