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Ringed by the steep sided hills and mountains of the West Highlands, Loch Morar is the deepest Freshwater lake in Britain. It's over a thousand feet deep and is linked to the sea by the smallest river in the UK, just half a mile long.

The bay it almost touches is lined with silver sands, it provides the perfect frame to the Hebridian islands of Rhum and Egg just fourteen miles away across the water. When you arrive at Morar it is easy to see why the people who live here think it's paradise.



Ewan Mac Donald hires boats and fishes the Loch. He tells Richard the secret of Loch Morar, a secret to match any in the Highlands. The pitch black, inky depths of the Loch is home to a monster. Morag, the monster of Morar has been sited for centuries and was even mention by St. Columba but the locals are reluctant to talk about it, they say people will think they are exaggerating or fabricating stories to drum up tourism but whatever the truth Ewan's story seemed credible.

He claims to have spotted the monster twice and it bears a remarkable similarity to the it's more illustrious neighbour at Loch Ness. Black and long with a number of humps as it glides through the water but it appears to be a timid beast and camera shy. Ewan, at least, has no doubt of its existence.



Alasdair Roberts is a local historian and he takes Richard to an abandoned island on the Loch. Although overgrown with Bracken and infested with midges now, the island used to boast a Catholic seminary and was home to the Bishop. It was chosen because of it's remoteness as it removed all the distractions of secular life from the priests.

As Alasdair points out, centuries ago it was an important centre for the Catholic faith in the Highlands, a place of culture and learning and a far cry from its present state. On the island Richard and Alasdair encounter the latter day monsters of Loch Morar -the midges.

Richard meets Archie and Barbara McCllelland in their garden in Morar and the views are spectacular. The islands of Egg and Rhum are so close they seem to sit at the bottom of the garden and to add to the fairytale feel of the encounter a hind and her calf appear peeping round the hedge and are very quickly eating leaves out of Barbara's hand.

Archie and Barbara tell Richard of their contentment in living Morar and how generations of their families have occupied the bays and banks of the Loch for centuries.

Finally, that sense of community and the strength the people of Loch Morar gather from it, are vividly explained by another Alasdair, Alasdair McCleod. A hotelier for thirty years, Alasdair explains the complex nature of family ties. The first born child would be named after the Grandparents and with an extended family that could be countered in their hundreds. It produces an awful lot of Alasdairs and Archies sharing a common surname.

This potential problem is turned to an advantage because the children are also referred to by the farm or area they come from - Alasdair of Bracara, a settlement on the Lochside for example. This evolves into a clever way of imparting a sense of identity which includes an attachment to place. It enhances their feeling of belonging which, as Alasdair explains, produces a clan system that has given the Highlands its strength and continuity.





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