List of freshwater islands in Scotland facts for kids

Loch Leven Castle island, where Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in 1567.

A map of the 1800s showing the islands of Loch Lomond

The freshwater islands in Scotland include those within freshwater lochs and rivers – including tidal areas, so the islands may not always be surrounded by freshwater. It has been estimated that there are at least 31,460 freshwater lochs in Scotland and that 1.9 per cent of the land surface is covered by freshwater. The distribution has a north-west to south-east gradient, with the highest concentrations occurring on the islands of the Outer Hebrides.

The more notable freshwater islands include Lochindorb Castle Island, Loch Leven Castle Island, St Serf's Inch and Inchmahome, each of which have had a role to play in Scottish history. Inchmurrin, the largest freshwater island in the British Isles, is in Loch Lomond, which contains thirty or more other islands.

Various names are used repeatedly. "Inch" or Innis is a Scots word that can mean 'island' (although it is also used for terra firma surrounded by marsh). Similarly, Eilean is the Gaelic for 'island'. A common suffix for offshore islands in the north of Scotland is "-holm", derived from the Old Norse holmr, meaning a 'small and rounded islet'. This list excludes artificial crannógs and the numerous small freshwater islands with no recorded name.

Larger islands

Inchmurrin in Loch Lomond, Scotland's largest freshwater island

The islands of Loch Maree

This table includes all of the freshwater islands that exceed 35 hectares (86 acres) in size and/or are populated.

Inchlonaig and Inchcruin are classified by the National Records of Scotland as "inhabited islands but had no usual residents at the time of either the 2001 or 2011 censuses." It is likely that Eilean Aigas is inhabited, at least from time to time as well, although it was not listed as such by the Census in 2001 or 2011.

In mainland lochs

Loch Awe

The ruins of Loch an Eilein castle with Cairn Gorm beyond

The upper reaches of Loch Lomond in winter

Inchfad in Loch Lomond

Lochindorb Castle Island

St Serf's Inch and Loch Leven in winter, from Vane Farm on Benarty Hill

Islands in Loch Morar

The east end of Loch Shiel: the Glenfinnan monument and Eilean Ghleann Fhionainn

Tom Dubh in Loch Insh

Loch Awe is Scotland's longest loch and abounds with islands and crannógs. Several of the islands are, or have in the past, been inhabited; there are two castles and the remains of a chapel on the islands. Inistrynich, Eilean na Maodail, Eilean Dubh and Liever Island are all promontories as opposed to islands despite their names. The loch's water levels have fluctuated so some of them may have been islands in recent history, as the promontory on which Kilchurn Castle stands once was.

There may be up to sixty islands in the Loch Lomond including Inchmurrin, the largest freshwater island anywhere in the Britain and Ireland, and Inchconnachan, which has hosted a small population of Red-necked Wallaby since at least 1975. The isolated strongholds of Lochindorb Castle and Loch an Eilein Castle were once in the hands of the 14th century nobleman Alexander Stewart, the infamous "Wolf of Badenoch". There are numerous unnamed small islands in mainland lochs, including those where the water level has been artificially raised by the creation of dams for the production of hydro-electricity. This process has created new islands that would previously have been small eminences.

On offshore islands

Ruins on Eilean Mòr (in the foreground) and Eilean na Comhairle, Loch Finlaggan, Islay

Loch Olabhat (south) on Benbecula

Loch Orasaigh and Rainish Eilean Mòr with the hills of Harris beyond

Although there are many crannógs in the lochs of the Inner Hebrides there are relatively few substantive, naturally occurring islands and of those that exist many are unnamed. By contrast there are innumerable small islands in the estimated 7,500 lochs of the Eilean Siar, only a small proportion of which are named by the Ordnance Survey.

The Orkney and Shetland archipelagos to the north are similarly lacking in freshwater islands. Law Ting Holm is the former location of the national þing, or Norse parliament of Shetland.

In rivers

The MacNab burial ground on Inchbuie

Woods on the Ness Islands

Threave Castle on Threave Island in the River Dee

Alloa Inch, showing the ruins

The manse on Contin Island

No part of Scotland is more than 80.4 kilometres (50 mi) from the sea and as a result Scotland's rivers are neither very wide nor long (although Scotland has many substantial salt water estuaries called firths). These are islands in freshwater, or where indicated, occasionally reached by high tides and in brackish water.

There are several former islands in the Tay, created by natural silting and artificial reclamation including: Big Island, Bloody Inches near Murthly, North Inch and South Inch in Perth, Richards Islands, Sleepless Inch and The Inch near Inchtuthil.

See also

• Battle of the North Inch
• Loch Gorm Castle on Eilean Mòr in Loch Gorm, Islay
• Mugdrum Island, which lies in tidal waters in the Firth of Tay.
• List of islands of Scotland
• List of lochs in Scotland
• List of rivers in Scotland
• Scottish island names
• Waterfalls of Scotland