Loch Tummel is a long, narrow 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...

, 7 kilometres north west of Pitlochry

Pitlochry

Pitlochry , is a burgh in the council area of Perth and Kinross, Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. Its population according to the 2001 census was 2,564....

 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...

, 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...

 .

Geography

The loch is approximately 11 kilometres long from east to west, and is just under 1 kilometre wide. It became part of the Tummel Hydro-Electric Power Scheme

Tummel hydro-electric power scheme

The Tummel hydro-electric power scheme for the generation of hydro-electric power is located in the Grampian Mountains, between Loch Ericht, Loch Rannoch and Loch Tummel, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.-References: – PDF file-External links:*...

 when the Clunie Dam was constructed by Wimpey Construction

George Wimpey

George Wimpey was formed in 1880 and, based in Hammersmith, operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919 and he developed it into the UK’s pre-eminent construction and housebuilding firm. In 2007, Wimpey merged with Taylor Woodrow to create...

 at its eastern end in 1950, raising the water level by 4.5 metres. The loch is traversed by roads on both north and south banks, offering splendid views of the surrounding countryside. The best is probably the well-known 'Queen's View' from the north shore, which Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

 made famous in 1866, offering a magnificent vista over the loch with Schiehallion

Schiehallion

Schiehallion is a prominent mountain in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Schiehallion has a rich botanical life, interesting archaeology, and a unique place in scientific history for an 18th-century experiment in 'weighing the world'...

 in the background. It is also claimed that the view was originally named after Queen Isabel

Isabella of Mar

Isabella of Mar was the first wife of Robert the Bruce and the grandmother of Robert II of Scotland, founder of the royal House of Stuart...

, wife of Robert the Bruce

Robert I of Scotland

Robert I , popularly known as Robert the Bruce , was King of Scots from March 25, 1306, until his death in 1329.His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage , and...

.

Above the head of the loch, Tummel Bridge crossing the River Tummel

River Tummel

The River Tummel is a river in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Discharging from Loch Rannoch, it flows east to a point near the Falls of Tummel, where it bends to the southeast, a direction which it maintains until it falls into the River Tay, just below Logierait, after a course of from its source...

 actually has two bridges. The original bridge built by General Wade

George Wade

Field Marshal George Wade served as a British military commander and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.-Early career:Wade, born in Kilavally, Westmeath in Ireland, was commissioned into the Earl of Bath's Regiment in 1690 and served in Flanders in 1692, during the Nine Years War, earning a...

 in 1730 has a modern replacement alongside carrying the traffic from Aberfeldy. Notable visitors who have stayed in this area include Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

 and Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...

. The northern side of the loch has many dun

Dun

Dun is now used both as a generic term for a fort and also for a specific variety of Atlantic roundhouse...

s, fort

Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...

s and cairn circle

Bowl barrow

Bowl Barrow is the name for a type of burial mound or tumulus. A barrow is a mound of earth used to cover a tomb. The bowl barrow gets its name from the fact that it looks like an upturned bowl...

s. At the eastern end, high in Glen Fincastle to the north, sits Fincastle House, a 17th-century seat of a branch of the Stewart

House of Stuart

The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...

s, with links to the 1745 rebellion

Jacobite rising

The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. The uprisings were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by...

. At the head of the glen

Glen

A glen is a valley, typically one that is long, deep, and often glacially U-shaped; or one with a watercourse running through such a valley. Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrower than a strath."...

 are the standing stone

Standing stone

Standing stones, orthostats, liths, or more commonly megaliths are solitary stones set vertically in the ground and come in many different varieties....

s of Clachan Aoraidh in the Allean Forest.

Leisure use

The loch is popular with anglers

Fisherman

A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...

 who fish for trout

Trout

Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...

.

Loch Tummel Sailing Club (LTSC) are based at Foss on the south west shore of the loch. From April and October the club organises dinghy racing (RS200/400,Europes, Toppers and Lasers among a diverse group). Day boats (FF15, Yomen) are also sailed .

The Loch is also very popular with campers during the spring and summer.