Holy Loch, an elongated bay of Dunoon and Kilmun parish, Argyllshire. Opening from the Firth of Clyde, between Strone Point on the N and Hunter's Quay on the S, and striking west-north-westward to the month of Stratheachaig, it measures 2½ miles in length and 7 furlongs in extreme breadth. It looks right across to Ashton and the pleasant seaboard of Renfrewshire ; its N side is steeply flanked by heathy Kilmun Hill (1535 feet), its S side by swells and braes, sloping upward more gently to the Bishop's Seat (1651) ; whilst its shores, in an almost continuous belt of narrow low ground, are fringed with the villages of Strone, Kilmun, Ardnadam, Sandbank, and Hunter's Quay. Its lower part affords good anchorage in 16 or 17 fathoms of water ; its sides, over much of their extent, have good bathing beaches ; and its upper part, during the recess of the tide, is silty foreshore, frequented by flocks of sea-fowl. Holy Loch is said by tradition to have received its name from the stranding within it of a vessel freighted with earth from the Holy Land, to lay beneath the foundations of Glasgow Cathedral ; and, in the days of quarantine, it was the quarantine station for the Clyde, with lazaretto and stores on its S shore.—Ord. Sur. , sh. 29, 1873.
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