Loch Enoch

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File:Loch Enoch from the slopes of Mullwharchar - geograph.org.uk - 144547.jpg
Loch Enoch viewed from the slopes of Mullwharchar

Loch Enoch is a multi-basin freshwater loch in Galloway, to the east of Merrick and south of Mullwharchar. The loch is situated in a granite basin and has several small islands and some beaches on its shore. The sharp granite sand of these beaches was collected and sold for sharpening knives and scythes.[1] The catchment area's vegetation is mainly Purple Moor Grass and Heather.[2]

The loch's outflow supplies Loch Doon and the River Doon, both in Ayrshire.

Acidification

By 1800 the water of Loch Enoch had already become acidic.[3] J. McBain in his 1929 book The Merrick and the Neighbouring Hills. Tramps by Hill, Stream and Loch describes a trout that 'bore the unmistakable marks of a Loch Enoch trout, i.e. it was minus the lower half of its tail and part of its ventral fins'.[4] McBain writes that the last recorded trout caught was in 1899. Since 1940 the loch became more acidic due to industrial emissions[3] and in the 1950s it completely lost its fish population.[5] In 1994 it was restocked with 3000 trout.[4] The loch has not become more acidic since the mid-1970s and has become slightly less acidic from the 1980s onwards,[2] with the pH increasing slowly from around 4.3 in 1978 to 4.9 in 2003.[6] Between 1983 and 2003 the loch's DOC levels increased.[7]

Water analysis

Concentrations of different elements in samples from June 2006[8]
Element Concentration μg/L
CaCO3 −500
Li 0.297
Al 83.9
V 0.263
Cr 0.147
Fe 49.3
Fe DRC 46.4
Mn 6.7
Co 0.064
Ni 0.348
Cu 0.247
Zn 3.14
Se 0.178

It is considered relatively oligotrophic.[9]

References

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External links


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