Hillend Loch


Hillend Loch is an artificial lake, called a loch in Scots English, located to the east of Caldercruix in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is bordered on its south shore by the A89 road.

Location

Hillend Loch sits immediately to the East of Caldercruix, near the town of Airdrie, in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The loch has a large catchment area in the hills which surround it and six feeder stream drain these hills and their moorland. It has a surface area of and its surface is above sea level. The railway line between Airdrie and Bathgate runs along the southern shore of Hillend Loch.

History

Hillend Loch is a naturalised reservoir established between 1797 and 1799 when the North Calder Water was dammed, an enterprise which employed up to 1,500 people at one time. It was, at the time the dam was constructed, the largest man-made reservoir in the world. It still supplies water to the Forth & Clyde Canal and the remains of the Monkland Canal. As well as the supply of drinking water the loch was to used to supply water to the steel and paper mills in the new industrial towns of Airdrie and Coatbridge.

Fishing

The fishing rights have been managed by Airdrie & District Angling Club since 1949 and they stock the loch during the angling season on a weekly basis. It has a naturally occurring stock of brown trout but these are supplemented by stocking with brown trout and the non-native rainbow trout. Fishing is by permit and fishing both from boats and from the shore is allowed.

Wildlife

Hillend Loch has a variety of habitats around its shores, including mature mixed woodlands, meadows, peat bog, reed beds and heather moorland. A wide range of migratory ducks, geese and swans are attracted to the loch in winter while there are breeding populations of Eurasian coot, common moorhen and wildfowl. Among the more regularly recorded species are Canada goose, great crested grebe and osprey. Waders such as the Eurasian oystercatcher, northern lapwing and Eurasian curlew are commonly recorded, as too are grey heron, common kingfisher and white-throated dipper, especially in the streams that run into the loch. The shoreline vegetation and woods of Hillend Loch also provides shelter for the nests of the reed bunting and warblers, woodpeckers and owls. Mammals which are regularly recorded include the roe deer, Eurasian otter and the brown hare The diverse habitat around the loch provides homes for a wide variety of moths and butterflies, some of which are rather rare.