Loch Shin

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Shin, Loch, a lake in Lairg parish, Sutherland. Lying 270 feet above sea-level, it extends 161/8 miles south-eastward to Lairg village, and varies in breadth between ¼ and 1½ mile. The trout are fine, and salmo-ferox are numerous. Loch Shin possesses strictly a Highland character, but wants the magnificence of mountainflank, the wealth of forest, and the adornment of park and islet, which distinguish many of the Highland lochs. Its south-eastern extremity, indeed, is overhung by a fine sweep of wood, and washes a slope beautifully studded with the neat cottages, the humble church, and the peaceful manse of the village of Lairg; and its W end is so sublimely encircled by the stupendous mountain-masses which are grouped with Benmore-Assynt as to need only wood and a little culture to produce a picturesque blending of grandeur and beauty; but its middle and greatly chief extent was described by Dr Macculloch as ` little better than a huge ditch without bays, without promontories, without rocks, without trees, without houses, without cultivation, as if Nature and man had equally despised and forgotten it.' Hugh Miller spent three autumn holidays at his aunt's cottage in the ancient Barony of Gruids on the shore of Loch Shin; and chapters v. and vi. of My Schools and Schoolmasters are largely devoted to those happy days of his boyhood.—Ord. Sur., shs. 108, 102, 1880-81.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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