360 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



founder of the Breadalbane family. This Sir Colin died in 

 1478, and is regarded as the first builder of the present castle, 

 the date generally assigned being 1440. The south side of the 

 building is assigned to the beginning of the sixteenth century, 

 and the north side, which is the most impressive as well as the 

 largest portion of the building, was erected in 1615 by the first 

 Earl of Breadalbane. As a matter of fact the castle was 

 occupied by the Breadalbane family till 1740. 



RIVER ORCHY 



This river forms the chief head water and the chief spawning 

 ground of the Awe. In this respect it is important, but also as 

 an angling river it occupies a high place. 



It rises from a number of small hill burns, which flow north- 

 wards on the slopes of Guala Mhor, a hill of 2,618 feet, the 

 summit of which is cut by the Perthshire boundary a short 

 distance to the north of the upper river Lyon, which flows 

 into the Tay near Aberfeldy. The small hill burns presently 

 unite to form the Water of Tulla, which flows in a south- 

 westerly direction along the borders of the Blackmount Forest 

 for 10 miles to Loch Tulla. From Loch Tulla the river is 

 named the Orchy, and the course is 16| miles to Loch Awe, 

 so that the total length of the river is about 27 miles. 



The gradient of the Water of Tulla is for the most part steep. 

 From the junction of the hill burns the fall to Loch Tulla is 

 quite 1,000 feet, which represents a gradient in 10 miles of 

 1 in 62, but this is pre-eminently the spawning area, and, 

 although many rough places exist, salmon are able to penetrate 

 to the top of the waterway. The railway line to Fort William 

 passes up the valley of the Tulla as it rises from Bridge of 

 Orchy to the Moor of Rannoch. 



Loch Tulla is 2| miles in length, and averages half-a-mile in 

 breadth. It covers an area of over one square mile, and with 

 its island and wooded slopes round Forest House and Inveroran, 

 forms a beautiful point of focus in the wild glen. It has a mean 

 depth of 33 feet, and a maximum depth of 84 feet. The level 

 above the sea is usually estimated as 555 feet. Forest House 

 is on the north side, and Inveroran Hotel at the south-west 

 end. The whole country round and the rights of salmon 



