Loch Beannacharan

Loch Beannacharan is a freshwater loch in Glen Strathfarrar, about nine and a half kilometres west of Struy in the Highland region. It lies on the River Farrar, which flows from Loch Monar down to join the River Glass and form the River Beauly. The name comes from the Gaelic word beannach, meaning ‘peaked’ or ‘horned’, with the suffix -an making it ‘little’. Before the Second World War the north shore held old Caledonian forest, most of which was felled. The surrounding land was once owned by the Lords Lovat and used mainly for deer hunting, until sheep from Lanark were brought in during the 1950s to graze. The loch forms part of the Affric-Beauly hydro-electric scheme built after the war. One kilometre downstream stands the Beannacharan Dam, completed in 1951 to control water flow. Deanie Power Station sits on the north-west shore, though it draws water not from the loch itself but from Loch Monar through a nine-kilometre tunnel. The scheme’s reservoirs and pipelines stretch across the glen, linking several lochs in a single network. Visitors reach the loch along a quiet single-track road that winds through Glen Strathfarrar. The water is calm and reflects the surrounding hills, while the far shore shows traces of the old forest clearance. Walkers can follow paths beside the river downstream to the dam, where the hydro works stand among heather moorland. The power station blends into the landscape, its intake tower rising beside the water. From the loch’s edge the hills of Affric rise steeply, enclosing a wide sky and the sound of running water.