Duddingston Loch

Duddingston Loch is a small freshwater lake on the southern edge of Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. It lies just southwest of the village of Duddingston and is one of only two natural lochs remaining within the city. The loch covers eight hectares and reaches a depth of three metres. It sits below Arthur’s Seat, the extinct volcano that dominates Holyrood Park. Three thousand years ago, Bronze Age people deposited weapons and tools in its waters. In 1778 a dredger pulled these artefacts from the loch bed, and they now form part of the Early People gallery at the National Museum of Scotland. The loch has long been linked to sport and art. Henry Raeburn’s painting The Skating Minister captures a scene once common here when the loch froze hard enough for skating. The Edinburgh Skating Club once met on its ice, though today the loch rarely freezes thickly enough. Duddingston Curling Society began meeting on the loch in the 18th century, and Thomson’s Tower, designed by William Henry Playfair in 1824, still stands on its northern shore. The society merged with another club in the 19th century but was revived in the 1890s. Visitors find a quiet waterside reserve with paths around the northern shore. Coarse fishing is allowed from this side, and anglers release carp, perch and roach they catch. The loch has been a bird sanctuary since 1925, and the Scottish Wildlife Trust runs the Bawsinch reserve on its southern edge. Reed beds fringe the water, and otters, hedgehogs and water voles live nearby. The western end holds the largest heronry in the Lothians, with 27 nests recorded in 2017. Mute swans, tufted ducks and great crested grebes nest here, while rarer visitors like smew and bittern have been seen passing through.