Duddingston Loch | |
---|---|
Location | Edinburgh |
Coordinates | 55°56′N3°09′W / 55.94°N 3.15°W |
Type | Freshwater pond |
Primary outflows | Braid Burn |
Catchment area | Arthur's Seat |
Basin countries | Scotland |
Max. length | 555 metres (1,821 ft) |
Max. width | 285 metres (935 ft) |
Max. depth | 3 metres (9.8 ft) |
Islands | several islets |
Duddingston Loch is a lake, or freshwater loch, in Edinburgh. It is one of the last two remaining natural lochs within the city, the other being Lochend Loch. It is situated to the south of Holyrood Park and lies southwest of the village of Duddingston. [1]
Duddingston Loch is on the southern side of Holyrood Park, to the south of Arthur's Seat. [1] It is the largest and the only natural loch of the three lochs within the Park. [2] [3] The loch has an area of 8 hectares (20 acres) and a maximum depth of 3 metres (9.8 ft). [1]
Around three thousand years ago, in the Bronze Age a hoard of weapons, such as swords and spears, as well as other artifacts was deliberately destroyed before being deposited in the waters of Duddingston Loch. These artifacts remained at the bottom of the loch until a dredger dragged them up from the loch bed in 1778. The Duddingston Loch Hoard is displayed in the Early People gallery at the National Museum of Scotland. [4]
Henry Raeburn's famous painting The Skating Minister is set on Duddingston Loch. [5] The loch used to be a popular venue for skaters, with the Edinburgh Skating Club meeting there, but is now rarely sufficiently iced.
The loch was also important in the development of the sport of Curling. [1] Duddingston Curling Society was constituted on 24 January 1795, but with records of curling on the loch dating from at least 1761. Thomson's Tower, designed by William Henry Playfair in 1824, served the society and still stands on the north side of the loch. The Society was wound up after the winter of 1854/55 when the remaining members merged with the Coates Curling Club. A new Duddingston Curling Society was created from 1894/95. [6]
Fishing is permitted in Duddingston Loch, mainly coarse fishing, and free permits can be obtained from the Holyrood Park Ranger Service. Fishing is only permitted from the north shore and any fish caught must be released back into the loch. The main species fished for are common carp, perch and roach. [7] There are also pike in the loch. [8]
Duddingston Loch has been a bird sanctuary since 1925. [1] The Scottish Wildlife Trust also have a wildlife reserve at Bawsinch on the southern shore of the loch which has an area of 26 hectares (64 acres). [9] As well as open water, scrub, and woodland the loch has the most extensive bed of common reed Phragmites australis in the Lothians. [1] The mammals seen around Duddingston Loch include otter, hedgehog and water vole. [3]
The loch is well known for its birds. [10] The western end of the loch is the location of the largest heronry in the Lothians which had 27 nests in 2017. Other breeding species include Canada goose, mute swan, tufted duck, great crested grebe, sparrowhawk, sedge warbler and reed bunting. [11] Non-breeding visitors to the loch include a number of other species of wildfowl as well as records of rarer species such as smew, ring-necked duck, ruddy duck and Great bittern. [12]
The Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area is a National Wildlife Area (NWA) located on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River in the National Provincial Capital Region of Quebec, established on 28 April 1978. It is one of the critical habitats for the greater snow goose during migration. Flocks of tens of thousands of these birds stop over to feed on the bullrushes in the spring and fall. The tidal marsh was recognized as a wetland of international significance per the Ramsar Convention in 1981, the first North American site to receive that distinction.
Holyrood Park is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland about 1 mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. It is open to the public. It has an array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs, and patches of gorse, providing a wild piece of highland landscape within its 650-acre (260 ha) area. The park is associated with the Palace of Holyroodhouse and was formerly a royal hunting estate. The park was created in 1541 when James V had the ground "circulit about Arthurs Sett, Salisborie and Duddingston craggis" enclosed by a stone wall.
Loch Leven is a fresh water loch located immediately to the east of the burgh of Kinross in Perth and Kinross council area, central Scotland. Roughly triangular, the loch is about 6 km (3.7 mi) at its longest. Prior to the canalisation of the River Leven, and the partial draining of the loch in 1826–36, Loch Leven was considerably larger. The drop in water level by 1.4 m reduced the loch to 75% of its former size, and exposed several small islands, as well as greatly increasing the size of the existing ones.
Loch Fleet is a sea loch on the east coast of Scotland, located between Golspie and Dornoch. It forms the estuary of the River Fleet, a small spate river that rises in the hills east of Lairg. The loch was designated a National Nature Reserve (NNR) in 1998, and is managed by a partnership between NatureScot, the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) and Sutherland Estates. The NNR extends to 1058 hectares, including the Loch Fleet tidal basin, sand dunes, shingle ridges and the adjacent pine woods, including Balbair Wood and Ferry Wood. The tidal basin of the loch covers over 630 ha, and forms the largest habitat on the NNR.
Loch Shiel is a freshwater loch situated 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of Fort William in the Highland council area of Scotland. At 28 kilometres long it is the 4th longest loch in Scotland, and is the longest to have retained a natural outflow without any regulation of its water level, being 120 m (393 ft) deep. Its nature changes considerably along its length, being deep and enclosed by mountains in the north east and shallow surrounded by bog and rough pasture in the south west, from which end the 4 km River Shiel drains to the sea in Loch Moidart near Castle Tioram.
The Cotswold Water Park is the United Kingdom's largest marl lake system, straddling the Wiltshire–Gloucestershire border, north-west of Cricklade and south of Cirencester. There are 180 lakes, spread over 42 square miles (110 km2).
Duddingston is a historic village in the east of Edinburgh, Scotland, next to Holyrood Park.
The Kirk of the Canongate, or Canongate Kirk, serves the Parish of Canongate in Edinburgh's Old Town, in Scotland. It is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. The parish includes the Palace of Holyroodhouse and the Scottish Parliament. It is also the parish church of Edinburgh Castle, even though the castle is detached from the rest of the parish. The wedding of Zara Phillips, the Queen's granddaughter, and former England rugby captain Mike Tindall took place at the church on 30 July 2011. The late Queen Elizabeth II used to attend services in the church on some of her frequent visits to Edinburgh.
Duddingston Kirk is a Parish Church in the Church of Scotland, located adjacent to Holyrood Park in Duddingston Village, on the east side of the City of Edinburgh. Regular services are held at the kirk, conducted by the minister, Rev Dr James A. P. Jack.
The Nor Loch, also known as the Nor' Loch and the North Loch, was a man-made loch formerly in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the area now occupied by Princes Street Gardens and Waverley station which lie between the Royal Mile and Princes Street.
The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, better known by its shorter title The Skating Minister, is a late 18th-century oil painting attributed to Henry Raeburn, now in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Because the painting was passed down through the subject's family, it was practically unknown until 1949, but has since become one of Scotland's best-known paintings. It is considered an icon of Scottish culture, painted during the Scottish Enlightenment.
Rev John Thomson FRSE HonRSA was a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland and noted amateur landscape painter. He was the minister of Duddingston Kirk from 1805 to 1840.
West Water Reservoir is an artificial reservoir in the Pentland Hills, Scottish Borders, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of West Linton, and 26 kilometres (16 mi) south west of Edinburgh. It is a drinking water reservoir for Edinburgh and the Lothians and is located 320 metres (1,050 ft) above sea level. It is an important site for wildfowl and is designated as a SSSI and a Ramsar site.
The fauna of Scotland is generally typical of the northwest European part of the Palearctic realm, although several of the country's larger mammals were hunted to extinction in historic times and human activity has also led to various species of wildlife being introduced. Scotland's diverse temperate environments support 62 species of wild mammals, including a population of wild cats, important numbers of grey and harbour seals and the most northerly colony of bottlenose dolphins in the world.
A curling house was used to store curling stones, brushes and other equipment used to maintain a curling pond and play the game of curling in Scotland and elsewhere.
Gladhouse Reservoir, formerly known as Moorfoot Loch, is a reservoir in Midlothian, Scotland, five miles (8 km) south of Penicuik. It is the most southerly reservoir in Midlothian, as well as being the largest area of freshwater in the Lothians. It is used to supply Edinburgh with drinking water.
Frampton Pools is a 59.84-hectare (147.9-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1974. The pools are on the edge of the village of Frampton on Severn.
Loch Spynie is a small loch located between the towns of Elgin and Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. Close to Spynie Palace, the ancient home of the bishops of Moray, it is an important wildlife habitat which is protected as a Ramsar Site.
The Duddingston Loch Hoard, currently held by National Museums Scotland (NMS), comprises Late Bronze Age weapons and other objects which were found in Duddingston Loch in Edinburgh when workers were dredging for marl in 1778. The bronze objects were found along with human bones and animal horns.