Lochcarron

Last updated

Lochcarron
Lochcarron - panoramio.jpg
Ross and Cromarty UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Lochcarron
Location within the Ross and Cromarty area
Population893 (2011) [1]
OS grid reference NG857387
Community council
  • Lochcarron
Council area
Lieutenancy area
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Lochcarron
Postcode district IV54
Dialling code 01520
Police Scotland
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament
List of places
UK
Scotland
57°24′00″N5°30′00″W / 57.4000°N 5.5000°W / 57.4000; -5.5000

Lochcarron (Scottish Gaelic : Loch Carrann) is a village, community and civil parish in the Wester Ross area of Highland, Scotland. It has a population of 923. [2]

Contents

Locality

The name Lochcarron is also applied to the collection of small settlements strung out along Loch Carron, a sea loch on the west coast of Ross and Cromarty. The village stretches for almost two miles (three kilometres), meandering along the shore of the loch. It means "Loch of rough water". In the 19th Century the village was named Janetown, then Jeantown. [3] The local newspaper, An Carrannach, is published on a monthly basis.

Lochcarron is a central location for hillwalking and touring the West Coast Highlands, including the Torridon, Plockton and Skye regions. Close to the village lies the Bealach na Bà road (Gaelic: Pass of the cattle), which links Applecross to the rest of the mainland. It is a road popular with tourists, drivers, and motorcyclists alike for its scenery and hairpin bends.[ citation needed ]

Amenities

Lochcarron contains a variety of local services. These include two petrol stations, a Spar shop (which has a Post Office counter), a library, a nursing home (attached to which is the local library), medical centre and tartan weaving heritage shop.[ citation needed ]

There are also two hotels (offering entertainment and meals),[ citation needed ] a restaurant and two cafés. The community hall hosts a number of public events including ceilidhs and sales; and sports such as indoor bowls and short tennis.[ citation needed ]

There are a number of self catering and bed and breakfast establishments, many of which are members of the local business association. [4]

Education

The local primary school stands at the entrance to the village, with 43 pupils (as of December 2019). The primary school offers both English and Gaelic Medium education. Plockton High School is the nearest secondary school to Lochcarron. [5]

Employment

The area's biggest employment sectors include tourism, crofting, and fish farming.[ citation needed ] Other employers include transportation via sea and road, and quarry work. Service industries include engineering, motor garages, health services and education. The Howard Doris Centre employs people in the care sector.[ citation needed ]

Sport and recreation

Sailing is a popular activity amongst the local and visiting population, and as such, a local RYA accredited, and Volvo Championship Club hosts free sailing sessions every Wednesday evening (between April and October), and racing sessions every Sunday afternoon. It currently enlists over 100 members. [6]

Lochcarron is home to the local shinty team Lochcarron Camanachd. The team currently play their home games at Battery Park in the west end of the village. The playing field is used during the week for training, and knockabout sessions.[ citation needed ]

There is a 9-hole course in the area which is over 150 years old.[ citation needed ] The golf club's clubhouse offers catering facilities and golf clubs available to hire.[ citation needed ]

The nearby Attadale hosts an annual Highland Games every third Saturday of July.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort William, Scotland</span> Town in the Highlands of Scotland

Fort William is a town in Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands, located on the eastern shore of Loch Linnhe. At the 2011 census, Fort William had a population of 10,459, making it the second largest settlement in both the Highland council area, and the whole of the Scottish Highlands; only the city of Inverness has a larger population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harris, Outer Hebrides</span> Region of Lewis and Harris island, Scotland

Harris is the southern and more mountainous part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Although not an island itself, Harris is often referred to in opposition to the Isle of Lewis as the Isle of Harris, which is the former postal county and the current post town for Royal Mail postcodes starting HS3 or HS5.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forfar</span> County town and administrative centre in Scotland

Forfar is the county town of Angus, Scotland and the administrative centre for Angus Council, with a new multi-million pound office complex located on the outskirts of the town. As of 2021, the town has a population of 16,280.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plockton</span> Village in the Scottish Highlands

Plockton is a village in the Lochalsh, Wester Ross area of the Scottish Highlands with a 2020 population of 468.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gairloch</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Gairloch is a village, civil parish and community on the shores of Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross, in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. A tourist destination in the summer months, Gairloch has a golf course, a museum, several hotels, a variety of shops, takeaway restaurants, a community centre, a leisure centre with sports facilities, a local radio station, beaches and nearby mountains. Gairloch is one of the principal villages on the North Coast 500 route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutherland</span> Historic county in Scotland

Sutherland is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire to the south and the Atlantic to the north and west. Like its southern neighbour Ross-shire, Sutherland has some of the most dramatic scenery in Europe, especially on its western fringe where the mountains meet the sea. These include high sea cliffs and very old mountains composed of Precambrian and Cambrian rocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lochgilphead</span> Town and administrative centre in Scotland

Lochgilphead is a town and former burgh in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, with a population of around 2,300 people. It is the administrative centre of Argyll and Bute Council. The village lies at the end of Loch Gilp and lies on the banks of the Crinan Canal. Lochgilphead sits on the A83, with Ardrishaig 2 miles (3 km) to the south and Inveraray 24 miles (39 km) to the north-east; Oban lies 37 miles (60 km) north on the A816.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mallaig</span> Scottish Highland port

Mallaig is a port in Morar, on the west coast of the Highlands of Scotland. It faces Skye from across the Sound of Sleat. The local railway station is the terminus of the West Highland Line, and the town is linked to Fort William by the A830 road – the "Road to the Isles".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyle of Lochalsh</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Kyle of Lochalsh is a village in the historic county of Ross & Cromarty on the northwest coast of Scotland, located around 55 miles (90 km) west-southwest of Inverness. It is located on the Lochalsh peninsula, at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye. A ferry used to connect the two villages until it was replaced by the Skye Bridge, about a mile (2 km) to the west, in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Back, Lewis</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Back is a district and a village on the east coast of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, situated on a coastal area known as Loch a'Tuath, or Broad Bay. Back is within the parish of Stornoway, and is situated on the B895. The village/district utilises the motto "Tre Dhilseachd Buaidh" as seen on the crest of Back FC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wester Ross</span> Area in the North West Highlands of Scotland

Wester Ross is an area of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland in the council area of Highland. The area is loosely defined, and has never been used as a formal administrative region in its own right, but is generally regarded as lying to the west of the main watershed of Ross, thus forming the western half of the county of Ross and Cromarty. The southwesternmost part of Ross and Cromarty, Lochalsh, is not considered part of Wester Ross by the local tourist organisation, Visit Wester Ross, but is included within the definition used for the Wester Ross Biosphere Reserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comrie, Perth and Kinross</span> Highland Town in Scotland

Comrie is a village and parish in the southern Highlands of Scotland, towards the western end of the Strathearn district of Perth and Kinross, 7 mi (11 km) west of Crieff. Comrie is a historic conservation town in a national scenic area along the river Earn. Its position on the Highland Boundary Fault explains why it has more earth tremors than anywhere else in Britain. The parish is twinned with Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insch</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Insch is a village in the Garioch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located approximately 28 miles (45 km) from the city of Aberdeen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stromeferry</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Stromeferry is a village, located on the south shore of the west coast sea loch, Loch Carron, in western Ross-shire, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. Its name reflects its former role as the location of one of the many coastal ferry services which existed prior to the expansion of the road network in the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killin</span> Village in Perthshire, Scotland

Killin is a village in Perthshire in the central Highlands of Scotland. Situated at the western head of Loch Tay, it is administered by the Stirling Council area. Killin is a historic conservation village and sits within the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. It is the central settlement of the historic region of Breadalbane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port an Eòrna</span> Settlement in Scotland

Port an Eòrna is the Scottish Gaelic name for the small settlement of Barleyport, situated almost midway between Plockton and the Kyle of Lochalsh, in Ross-shire, Scotland, in the Western Highlands. Port an Eòrna was once a fishing community near Duirinish, an area of common grazing for sheep and Highland cattle. Now it is a cluster of a few houses on National Trust for Scotland land. Port an Eòrna is a natural sandy beach. Eòrna means "barley" in Scottish Gaelic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caol</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Caol is a village near Fort William, in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is about 1+14 miles north of Fort William town centre, on the shore of Loch Linnhe, and is within the parish of Kilmallie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loch Carron</span>

Loch Carron is a sea loch on the west coast of Ross and Cromarty in the Scottish Highlands, which separates the Lochalsh peninsula from the Applecross peninsula, and from the Stromeferry headland east of Loch Kishorn. It is the point at which the River Carron enters the North Atlantic Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Achmore, Highland</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Achmore is a hamlet located close to the south shore of Loch Carron, approximately seven miles east of Plockton near Stromeferry in the historic county of Wester Ross and within the Highland council area, Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duncraig Castle</span> Castle in Lochalsh, Scotland

Duncraig Castle is a mansion in Lochalsh, in the west of the Scottish Highlands. A category-C listed building, it is situated in the Highland council area, east of the village of Plockton on the south shore of Loch Carron. It was built in 1866 in the Scottish baronial style, to designs by Alexander Ross, for Scottish Member of Parliament and businessman Alexander Matheson. The castle remained in the Matheson family until the 1920s, when it was sold to Sir Daniel Hamilton and his wife Margaret, who owned the neighbouring estate. The Hamiltons intended to use the castle for educational purposes in the local community, but this never came to fruition and following the outbreak of World War II, the castle was used as a naval hospital. By the end of the war, Daniel Hamilton had died, and Margaret bequeathed the castle to the local council, which converted it for use as a home economics college for girls, operating in this capacity until its closure in 1989.

References

  1. "Scotland's Census 2011: Civil Parish of Lochcarron". National Records of Scotland. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  2. General Register Office for Scotland : Census 2001 : Usual Resident Population : Lochcarron Civil Parish Archived 2012-03-07 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2009-11-18
  3. John E Wilson (1996). The Gazetteer of Scotland. Heritage Books. p. 247. ISBN   9781888265071.
  4. "Lochcarron and District Business Association".
  5. "Schools - Lochcarron Primary". Highland Council. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  6. "Lochcarron Sailing Club - Home". lochcarronsailing.com.