Rum, Long Loch

This substantial and well-preserved dam stands at the S end of Long Loch and forms an important part of a 19th century network of dams and cuts that were constructed for the purpose of controlling drainage within the centre of Rum in order to improve sport fishing. It was probably built in the middle years of the 19th century on the instruction of Lord Salisbury, then owner of the island, to form a shallow loch for the fishing of salmon which had access to the N end of the loch from the sea via the Kilmory River.

Love has noted (2001, 188) that another ‘double wall at the Longlock’ was washed away in December 1849, and this has been interpreted as evidence for a dam at the northern end of the loch. However, given that Salisbury explained that ‘it was not desirable to make the Long Loch deeper than is absolutely necessary’ (ibid) and that there should be ‘no impediment for the salmon to run up from Kilmory’, it seems more likely that the structure that was washed away was simply an earlier attempt at damming the southern end of the loch.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG) August 2011.