CHAPTER XVI 



THE KINLOCH 



Drmms seventy-three square miles of a very mountainous but 

 grand country. Rising on the western slopes of rugged Ben Loj'al, 

 it flows out of Loch Derrj', and has a short, tumbling run of three 

 miles of pots and streams into the Kyle of Tongue. It rises and 

 falls so rapidly that only those li\dng on the banks can fish it ^\'ith 

 advantage. It is strictly private, the respective tenants of Kinloch 

 Forest and Loch Loyal shootings having each a side of the water, 

 which forms the march between the two places. It is a very late 

 river, up which fish seldom come before the end of June or beginning 

 of July ; nevertheless, it opens to rod and net on the nth of 

 February ; closes for nets on the 26th of August, while the rod can 

 work on till the 31st of October. It can easily be covered with a 

 light rod, and all the standard flies kiU, but they must be small, 

 and dressed on irons ranging from No. 2 to No. 6 Limerick hooks. 

 No waders required. There are not many sea trout, or brown ones 

 either. A friend of ]\Ir. Lawson's, the late tenant of Kinloch, who 

 now rents Loch Loyal shootings, had a day of five fish a few years 

 back, quite a brilliant exception, for this is one of the most dis- 

 appointing little streams in the north. From the end of July 

 it swarms with fish, which (average, 9 lb.) rarely take any lure, 

 although every sort has been tried. 



Mr. A. Balfour is the present tenant of Kinloch Forest Lodge — 

 very prettily placed on the heather high up over the river. In 

 addition to this fishing there is also the right of a boat on Loch 

 Hope, some eight miles across the hiU by a pony-track. Salmon 

 now ascend to Loch Derry with ease, though up till about fifteen 

 years ago they could not do so, when the late Duke of Sutherland 

 put a dam at the tail of the pool below the fall, and so raised the 

 water to such a height as would let the fish up. 



I stayed at Tongue Hotel to explore this river, and ui the smoking- 

 room I made the acquamtance of Mr. Speedie, the renter of all the 

 Sutherland bag-nets of the west coast of the county. Naturally, 

 I tried to get him to talk salmon, and opened up the conversation 

 by an allusion to the very bad season of 1898. Mr. Speedie did not 

 seem in the least depressed by it, for he said he remembered seasons 

 nearly, if not quite, as bad, which had in due course been followed 

 by very good ones, and he confidently predicted a return of pros- 

 perity. Mr. Speedie likewise holds the opinion that in some rivers 



