A loch is simply a natural lake or pond; or a term given to an arm of the sea. They provide part of the background against which human activity took place, providing a source of food, building materials and entertainment. Wild fowl and fish were a useful supplement to the diet and the rights to harvest them were jealously guarded. Even leeches were taken from two of the local lochs for use in medicinal treatments. Reeds grew along the banks of the lochs and could be used for thatching. Many of the lochs were located in peat mosses and this was taken as fuel. Indeed, some of the lochs resulted from the hollows left by the extraction of peat and in some cases this led to disastrous land slips. None of the local lochs were particularly deep and the water on their margins quickly froze in the winter allowing curling to take place. This game was particularly popular in the early 19th century. At the end of the 20th century water skiing was taking place at the Black Loch.
Reid devoted a section of his place name book to the lochs of East Stirlingshire (Reid 2009, 184-187). Only a few of these now remain, many having been converted into reservoirs or drained as part of the agricultural improvements of the 18th century. Some of the place names associated with the lochs are:
- Lochbank – Callendar Loch (1781)
- Lochdrum – Loch Green (1742)
- Lochend – Tarduf Loch (1817)
- Lochend – Ellrigg Loch (1817)
- Lochend – Boreland (1695)
- Lochgreen – Loch Green (1664)
- Lochhead – Tarduf Lock (1724)
- Lochhead – Ellrig Loch (1724)
- Lochhead – Boreland (1699)
- Lochhouse – Black Loch
- Lochlands – (1826)
- Lochmuir – Black Loch (1690)
- Lochpark – Castlecary (1815)
- Lochpark – St Helen’s Loch (1860)
- Lochrig – Longridge or Black (1590/1620)
- Lochside – Ellrigg Loch
- Lochstank – Black Loch (1806)
- Lochstank – Ellrig Loch (1784)
The two largest of the lochs were the Black Loch at Limerigg and Ellrig Loch south of Shieldhill. In both of these cases their original sizes are uncertain, but they are shown on Pont’s map of the 1570s as large bodies of water. The Black Loch was enlarged in the 1780s to 124 acres by the construction of an earth embankment on its south-east side across the North Calder Water so that it could store more water for the use of the Forth and Clyde Canal. Ellrig Loch was at one time said to have been 50 acres in extent. It had a much more chequered history, being completely drained in 1896 to allow the coal deposits underneath it to be worked. It had been intended to convert the land it occupied into arable but this was abandoned and the loch was restored. To its north a combination of coal and peat working has left large hollows which are now filled with water and, although not officially named as lochs, could be considered as such.
St Helen’s Loch near Bonnybridge was also greatly modified to serve as a mill dam in the 18th century, whereas many such dams were constructed from scratch at that time and form significant stretches of open fresh water. The largest of these were the Carron Dams for the large ironworks there. The main or Wester dam covered an area of 31 acres and was an average of 3ft deep, giving it a capacity of 26.8 million gallons of water; the Forge Dam was 5.5 acres in size, and being 8-9ft deep held 13.1 million gallons (Watters 1996, 83). The Wester Dam made use of an existing hollow which was probably the result of peat extraction to provide fuel for the adjacent 16-17th century pottery. It had to be lined with clay to prevent seepage. Two small ponds were also created along the line of the lade to the west of the works and one of these was colloquially known as Lamond’s loch. Another large reservoir was formed at Dunipace but was abandoned after a short period due to a dispute over the ownership of the land. It slowly silted up and today provides a haven for wildlife – but was never known as a loch.
The large reservoirs and modified lochs used for the supply of drinking water to the population of the Falkirk area have been covered in a treatment of that essential of life. The list below is of the lochs – natural and misnamed manmade entities.
- Black Loch (SMR 2016)
- Black Loch (SMR 2178)
- Callendar Loch
- Loch Gair
- Loch Green (and possible Crannog)
- Muirhouses Loch
- Redding Loch
- Rumford Loch
Falkirk Local History Society 