Loch Meiklie

Loch Meiklie is a quiet freshwater loch in Inverness-shire, about six and a half kilometres west of Drumnadrochit. It lies on the River Enrick, which after nine and a half kilometres joins Loch Ness downstream. The name may come from the Scots word for ‘large’, though local place-names are usually Gaelic in origin. Another theory links it to an old Gaelic root meaning ‘pouring forth’. In 1798 the Old Statistical Account called the loch ‘a beautiful sheet of water’ set among well-kept fields and gentleman’s houses. The loch is known for its holiday lodges along the south-east shore. On the north shore stands an Episcopalian chapel to St Ninian, built in the 1850s and designed by Alexander Ross. Bishop Robert Eden consecrated the church in 1853. Inside, Celtic patterns and Gaelic inscriptions decorate the walls. In 1876 William McKay wrote of a crannog reached by a winding causeway, yet when Odo Blundell visited in 1913 no trace remained. Visitors find calm water framed by gentle slopes and farmland. The shoreline holds a few lodges and the small chapel with its stone carvings. The River Enrick enters at one end and leaves at the other, carrying water toward Loch Ness. Local anglers speak of ordinary fishing, with no sign of any crannog. The scene remains peaceful, unchanged since the 18th-century description of a ‘very picturesque and romantic landscape’.