CHAPTER XI 

 THE FIONN LOCH 



I HOPE I may be excused if I am often guilty of asserting 



that Fionn Loch (the White Loch) is the best trout loch 



in Scotland. In one respect it is certainly superior to 



Loch na h'oiche, which I have extolled in a former 



chapter, because the Fionn Loch fish are of a much 



greater size. It is a magnificent loch, whether regarded 



from a natural history standpoint or from that of sport 



and scenery; indeed, the upper end has often been 



compared to Loch Coruisge in Skye. It was not part 



of the original Gairloch estate. Some time in the early 



forties, when my brother, the heir to Gairloch, was still 



a minor, my mother and my uncle (the trustees) bought 



the Kernsary property for him from the Seaforths, 



so as to give Gairloch the north as well as the south bank 



of the River Ewe; for, though Gairloch had a Crown 



charter of all the salmon rights in that famous river, it 



was more difficult to look after it and keep down poaching, 



etc., when the land on one side belonged to someone else. 



So in 1862, after I bought Inverewe, my brother sold 



me back the larger part of Kernsary, which adjoined 



and lay right into Inverewe, retaining for himself 



only that portion of it which ran alongside the river, 



and thus I acquired several miles of the shores of the 



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