Loch Ailort is a sea loch loch

Loch

Loch is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word for a lake or a sea inlet. It has been anglicised as lough, although this is pronounced the same way as loch. Some lochs could also be called a firth, fjord, estuary, strait or bay...

 in Morar

Morar

Morar is a small village on the west coast of Scotland, south of Mallaig. The name Morar is also applied to the wider district around the village....

, Lochaber

Lochaber

District of Lochaber 1975 to 1996Highland council area shown as one of the council areas of ScotlandLochaber is one of the 16 ward management areas of the Highland Council of Scotland and one of eight former local government districts of the two-tier Highland region...

, Highland

Highland (council area)

Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole. It shares borders with the council areas of Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross, and Argyll and Bute. Their councils, and those of Angus and...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. Loch Ailort is a shallow V shaped loch, with the small Ardnish Peninsula on the north side, and the large southwest facing Moidart Peninsula to the south. Loch Ailort is bounded in the northeast by the village of the same name, Lochailort

Lochailort

Lochailort is a hamlet in Scotland that lies at the head of Loch Ailort, a sea loch, on the junction of the Road to the Isles between Fort William and Mallaig with the A861 loop towards Salen and Strontian. It is served by Lochailort railway station on the West Highland Line...

 and in the west, opening out into the Sound of Arisaig

Sound of Arisaig

The Sound of Arisaig in Lochaber, Scotland, separates the Arisaig peninsula to the north from the Moidart peninsula to the south. At the eastern, landward end, the sound is divided by Ardnish into two sea lochs. Loch nan Uamh lies to the north of Ardnish, Loch Ailort to the south...

. To the north of the loch lies Loch Nan Uamh.

Geography

The northern coastline is overlooked by the hill Cruach An Aonaich, that is situated at the centre of the V shape of the loch, and the ridge of An t Aonach which follows the coastline northeast to the edge of the loch, where the ridge flattens out to sea level. The southern coastline is dominated by the fine coned shaped former volcano of An Stac, which is a Corbett

Hill lists in the British Isles

The mountains and hills of Great Britain, and to a lesser extent Ireland, are the subject of a considerable number of lists that categorise them by height, topographic prominence, or other criteria. They are commonly used as a basis for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt to reach all the...

 and overlooks Lochailort to the north. Further behind An Stac to south, and overlooking the great expanse of the sea loch, is the west facing ridge that is made up of the Sgurr na Ba Glaise in the east followed by Rois-Bhein and Cruach Doir'an Raoigh, which are also, all Corbetts.

Islands

Loch Ailort has a number of islands. At the entrance to the loch is two islands. Eilean nan Gobhar, or Eilean na Gour at the south of the loch mouth, and the other is Eilean á Chaolis. Eilean nan Gobhar, is famous for two vitrified fort

Vitrified fort

Vitrified fort is the name given to certain crude stone enclosures whose walls have been subjected in a greater or lesser degree to the action of fire. They are generally situated on hills offering strong defensive positions. Their form seems to have been determined by the contour of the flat...

s. Further to the west lies the island of Eilean Buidhe, which lies at the centre of the channel and marks the point the sea loch turns northeast, for the upswing of the V shape. Further northeast, and visible from the village of Lochailort

Lochailort

Lochailort is a hamlet in Scotland that lies at the head of Loch Ailort, a sea loch, on the junction of the Road to the Isles between Fort William and Mallaig with the A861 loop towards Salen and Strontian. It is served by Lochailort railway station on the West Highland Line...

 is the small mid channel island grouping of Eilean Dubh.

Settlements

Loch Ailort is remote and it's coastline is only sparsely populated. At the head of the loch lies the village of Lochailort

Lochailort

Lochailort is a hamlet in Scotland that lies at the head of Loch Ailort, a sea loch, on the junction of the Road to the Isles between Fort William and Mallaig with the A861 loop towards Salen and Strontian. It is served by Lochailort railway station on the West Highland Line...

. To the north, the Ardnish peninsula is mostly empty, apart from the occasional farmhouse or hunting lodge. The southcoastline contains the small hamlets of Alisary in the east and Roshven

Roshven

Roshven is an estate located on the coast between the Sound of Arisaig and Loch Ailort, in Lochaber, in the council area of Highland, Scotland. Towering above it is Rois-bheinn, the highest hill in the area.-History:...

 in the west. Further west, lying outside the mouth of the sea loch, lies the small village of Glenuig

Glenuig

Glenuig is a small village in Moidart, Lochaber, Highland, on the west coast of Scotland. It is around 30 miles west of Fort William and 20 miles from Ardnamurchan Point.-Geography:...