Lowes, Loch of the, a lake in the extreme NW of Ettrick parish, Selkirkshire. Lying 815 feet above sea-level, it measures 6¾ furlongs in length from S by W to N by E, 1¾ furlong in extreme breadth, and 11 or 12 fathoms in depth. At the foot it is separated by only a narrow neck of land from the head of St Mary's Loch, into which it discharges, through an aggregate descent of only 15 inches, the nascent drain-like stream of Yarrow Water; and it seems to have been originally one lake with St Mary's Loch, till gradually separated from it by deposits at the mouths of Oxcleugh and Crosscleugh Burns. In consequence, probably, of its becoming a separate lake, but certainly not on account of any preeminence in either extent or picturesqueness, it is popularly called the Loch of the Lowes, signifying ` the lake of the lakes. '-Ord. Sur., sh. 16, 1864.
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