Lochloy

NH95NW 10 92 57 to 92 58.

The village of Lochloy, extant in the early 17th century, lay between the loch and the modern house of Lochloy, close to the present road. Hearth-stones, querns and remains of buildings were dug up about 1859. The chapel, which lay a little to the west of the village, was known to Bain who recorded that its drystone foundation walls suggested that it was very old. The mound on which it was built had on it a number of undressed and unmarked headstones. A well close by was still known as Chapel Well. Bain adds that fragments of human bones were dug up when a road was being made down to the loch but that the work was stopped by the proprietor.

J Blaeu 1654; G Bain 1893.

(NH 9235 5798) Burials of five adults and a child were found during the digging of a pole-pit by the North of Scotland Hydro-electric Board on 1 September 1959. The remains were examined by Mr P R Ritchie (MoPBW, 8 February 1967) who found a possible hut circle, midden material and a small fragment of wall but no date could be assigned to them. (It seems probable that Miss Ballie was alluding to these finds when she identified the site of the chapel).

(Information from N Scotland Hydro Board letter and plan, 24 January 1967)

S H Cruden 1959

The sites of the chapel and burying-place were pointed out at NH 9235 5798 by Miss E Baillie (Lochloy, Nairn), daughter of the proprietor mentioned by Bain: nothing remains of either. She stated that the natural spring at NH 9226 5786 is known as Chapel Well.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 22 November 1965

Fragmentary remains of walling visible at NH 923 579 in the face of an abandoned gravel-pit are probably the remains of the deserted village of Lochloy. The burials found in 1959 are probably associated with the village. No trace of the possible hut-circle noted in 1959.

RCAHMS 1978, visited March 1978.