348 THE SALMON RIVERS OF SCOTLAND 



water to the Orchy mouth. In this line depths of fully 200 feet are 

 found most of the way, till the gradual shallowing opposite Loch 

 Awe Station announces the approach to the peninsula upon which 

 old Kilchurn Castle stands. 



The castle seems to divide the honours of the loch with Ben 

 Cruachan and the Pass of Brander, although the islands have more 

 interest connected with them than most people suppose. Tradition 

 gives it a very early origin, and apparently the ground upon which 

 the castle now stands had a fortress in the days of the MacGregors 

 before it passed to Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochow, and then to his 

 youngest son, Sir Colin Campbell, the 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 northwards 

 on the slopes of Guala Mhor, a hill of 2618 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 Aber- 

 feldy. 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 J 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 

 1000 feet, which represents a gradient in 10 miles of 1 in 52, but 

 this is pre-eminently the spawning area, and, although many rough 

 places exist, salmon are able to penetrate to the top of the water- 

 way. 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. 



