Scavaig, Loch, a remarkable inlet of the sea, a scene of wild and dismal grandeur, on the SW coast of Skye. It measures 4¾ miles across the entrance, and 3 miles thence to its inmost recess; and it penetrates among the Cuchullin Mountains. Its flanks are stupendous heights of bare rock, which shoot abruptly up from the bosom of the sea, and, being composed of hypersthene, have a singularly dark and metallic aspect. ` But, ' says Dr Macculloch, who brought this remarkable piece of scenery into notice, and is the fittest person to describe it, ` it is impossible to convey any idea of this spot, which before my visit had never been seen by a stranger, and was indeed known to few, even of the inhabitants of Skye. Scarcely any but shepherds had trod these sequestered retreats, the dwelling of clouds and solitude; fit haunts for the poetical demons of the storm. Loch Scavaig is inaccessible by land on the N side, and equally so on the S, to all but the active and practised mountaineer. The traveller whose object is picturesque beauty, should enter it from Strathaird. In this direction the view from the sea is extremely fine, the dark ridge of the Cuchullin, with all its spiry and serrated projections, flanked by the equally dark and lofty ridge of Blaven, forming a varied and rugged outline of the sky. On entering the bay, these summits disappear, as they retire below the high skirts of the hills which descend into the sea, varied by projecting points and rocky islets, and surrounding the spectator with a continuous surface of bare and brown rock, scarcely presenting a symptom of vegetation. The falling of a cascade, the deep dark green of the the water, and the wheeling flight of the sea-birds that frequent this retired spot, are the only objects which vary the uniformity of colours and of character it everywhere displays. On landing, similar scenes meet the eye in every direction, no intruding object occurring to diminish the effect produced by the gloomy grandeur and savage aspect of the place.' See Coruisk and Cuchullins.
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