Loch Leven
Encyclopedia
Loch Leven is a fresh water
Fresh Water
Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve...

 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 Perth and Kinross
Perth and Kinross
Perth and Kinross is one of 32 council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy Area. It borders onto the Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee City, Fife, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Argyll and Bute and Highland council areas. Perth is the administrative centre...

 council area, central 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...

.

Roughly triangular, the loch is about 6 km at its longest. The burgh
Burgh
A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...

 of Kinross
Kinross
Kinross is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It was formerly the county town of Kinross-shire.Kinross is a fairly small town, with some attractive buildings...

 lies at its western end. Loch Leven Castle
Loch Leven Castle
Loch Leven Castle is a ruined castle on an island in Loch Leven, in the Perth and Kinross local authority area of Scotland. Possibly built around 1300, the castle was the location military action during the Wars of Scottish Independence...

 lies on an island a short way offshore. The castle was the prison of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1567, and it can be reached by ferry, operated from Kinross by Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...

 during the summer months.

Prior to the canalisation of the River Leven
River Leven, Fife
The River Leven is a river in Fife in Scotland. It flows from Loch Leven into the Firth of Forth at the town of Leven. The river is home to brown trout and hosts a run of sea trout and atlantic salmon...

, and the partial draining of the Loch in the early 19th century, Loch Leven was of considerably larger area. The fall in water level exposed several small islands, and greatly increased the size of the existing ones.

Several relics were found during the draining, one of them being a sceptre
Sceptre
A sceptre is a symbolic ornamental rod or wand borne in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia.-Antiquity:...

, "apparently of cane, hilted with ivory, and mounted with silver, upon which ... were the letters of the words, "Mary, Queen of Scots," found near the Mary Knowe, where she is supposed to have landed after her escape from the castle.

St Serf's Inch
St Serf's Inch
St Serf's Inch or St Serf's Island is an island in Loch Leven, in south-eastern Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It was the home of a Culdee and then an Augustinian monastic community, St Serf's Inch Priory.-History:...

 is the largest of Loch Leven's seven islands and it was the home of a Culdee
Culdee
Céli Dé or Culdees were originally members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland and England in the Middle Ages. The term is used of St. John the Apostle, of a missioner from abroad recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters at the year 806, and of Óengus...

 and then an Augustinian monastic community, St Serf's Inch Priory
St Serf's Inch Priory
The St Serf's Inch Priory was a community of Augustinian canons based, initially at least, on St Serf's Inch in Loch Leven.It was founded from St Andrews Cathedral Priory at the instigation of King David I of Scotland in 1150...

. There was a monastic community on the island which was old in the 12th century. The monastery produced a series of Gaelic language charters from the 11th and 12th centuries which were translated into Latin in the late 12th century.

Loch Leven is a National Nature Reserve
National Nature Reserve
For details of National nature reserves in the United Kingdom see:*National Nature Reserves in England*National Nature Reserves in Northern Ireland*National Nature Reserves in Scotland*National Nature Reserves in Wales...

, as well as a Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 and a Special Protection Area
Special Protection Area
A Special Protection Area or SPA is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certain particularly threatened birds.Together with Special...

.

"Loch Leven" is also the name of the new Sykes VIII rowing boat for Scotch College, Adelaide
Scotch College, Adelaide
Scotch College is an independent, Uniting Church, co-educational, day and boarding school, located on two adjacent campuses in Torrens Park and Mitcham, inner-southern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia....

 and was named in honor after the loch.

Loch Leven In Song

"Shores of Loch Leven" is a song written by Irish songwriter, Dick Farrelly
Dick Farrelly
Dick Farrelly born Richard Farrelly was an Irish songwriter, policeman and poet, composer of "The Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best remembered. His parents were publicans and when Dick was twenty-three he left Kells, County Meath for Dublin to join the Irish Police Force...

. Dick also known as Richard is best remembered for his song, The "Isle of Innisfree
Isle of Innisfree
The Isle of Innisfree is a song composed by Dick Farrelly , born Richard Farrelly, who wrote both the music and lyrics. Dick got the inspiration for "Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best remembered, while on a bus journey from his native Kells, County Meath to Dublin...

, (theme of the film, The Quiet Man). "Shores of Loch Leven" was recorded by Sinead Stone & Gerard Farrelly (Dick's Son) on the album "Legacy of a Quiet Man
Legacy of a Quiet Man
Legacy of a Quiet Man is a music album by Irish singer Sinead Stone and musician Gerard Farrelly. The album was released in 2001 on the Seolta Records label and is a collection of songs written by Gerard’s father Dick Farrelly...

".
The CD is a collection of songs written by Dick Farrelly and features such titles as "Cottage by the Lee
Cottage by the Lee
Cottage by the Lee is a song written by Irish songwriter Dick Farrelly. It was composed in the early 1950s and is published by Waltons Music Publishing in Dublin, Ireland....

", The Gypsy Maiden and "We Dreamed our Dreams
We Dreamed our Dreams
We Dreamed our Dreams is a song written by Irish songwriter Dick Farrelly. Dick is best known for his song, "Isle of Innisfree" theme of the film, The Quiet Man...

".

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