Qualla: Loch Assynt https://qualla.com/loch-assynt en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/6/loch-assynt-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Loch Assynt https://qualla.com/loch-assynt Loch Assynt: Introduction https://qualla.com/loch-assynt/ Photo credit Mick Garratt, CC BY-SA 2.0. Around 1.2 billion years ago, an asteroid hit northwest Scotland. The impact threw up an enormous cloud of vapour and melted rock that scattered material across a wide region around what is now Ullapool. Geologists from Aberdeen University identified the strike in the early 2000s by tracing distinctive shocked minerals in sandstones. They consider it the largest meteorite impact ever found in the British Isles. The crater was buried under sandstone almost immediately, which is why the evidence survived. The locals around Loch Assynt have always had a different explanation. They blame the devil.

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Image: Mick Garratt | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/6/loch-assynt-wp/gfk6-loch-assynt-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Loch Assynt: A Loch Carved Between Mountains https://qualla.com/loch-assynt/ Photo credit Donald Bain, CC BY-SA 2.0. Loch Assynt is a freshwater loch in Sutherland, eight kilometres northeast of Lochinver, sitting in one of the most spectacular settings in the Scottish Highlands. To the south rises Canisp, to the north Quinag - both Corbett-grade peaks of Torridonian sandstone. The loch itself ...

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Image: Donald Bain | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/6/loch-assynt-wp/gfk6-loch-assynt-a-loch-carved-between-mountains.mp3 0:06 2 full Loch Assynt: The Mermaid of Assynt https://qualla.com/loch-assynt/ Photo credit Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 3.0. Stories whispered in Inchnadamph, the small settlement at the loch's eastern head, tell of Eimhir, the lost daughter of MacLeod of Assynt. The clan chief promised her in marriage to the devil - in some versions explicitly, in others to a stranger who turned out to be Clootie, an ...

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Image: Paul Hermans | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/6/loch-assynt-wp/gfk6-loch-assynt-the-mermaid-of-assynt.mp3 0:06 3 full Loch Assynt: Clootie's Revenge https://qualla.com/loch-assynt/ Photo credit Gordon Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0. In the legend, Clootie was not amused by the broken promise. The story continues that he summoned meteoric rocks from chaos to obliterate Inchnadamph and MacLeod's kingdom in retribution. Folklorists note the obvious overlap with the actual geology: northwest Scotland really was ...

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Image: Gordon Brown | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/6/loch-assynt-wp/gfk6-loch-assynt-clooties-revenge.mp3 0:06 4 full Loch Assynt: Three Generations of Survey https://qualla.com/loch-assynt/ Photo credit Vincent, Public domain. The loch was systematically surveyed in 1909 by Sir John Murray and Laurence Pullar as part of their Bathymetrical Survey of the Fresh-Water Lochs of Scotland, published the following year. Their work mapped depths, currents and shorelines across hundreds of Scottish lochs and re...

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Image: Vincent | Public domain

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/k/6/loch-assynt-wp/gfk6-loch-assynt-three-generations-of-survey.mp3 0:06 5 full