Loch Broom & Corrieshalloch Gorge

Looking towards Loch Broom from the heights above Corrieshalloch Gorge.

Loch Broom (Scottish Gaelic: Lochbraon, “loch of rain showers”) is a sea loch located in northwestern Ross and Cromarty, in the former parish of Lochbroom, on the west coast of Scotland. The small town of Ullapool lies on the eastern shore of the loch.

Corrieshalloch Gorge (Scottish Gaelic: Coire Shalach, meaning unattractive corrie) is a gorge situated about 20 km south of Ullapool, close to the junction of the A832 and A835 roads near Braemore in the Scottish Highlands. The gorge is approximately 1.5 km long, 60 m deep, and 10 m wide at its lip. The Abhainn Droma flows through Corrieshalloch, below which the landscape opens out into a broad, flat-bottomed glacial trough at the head of Loch Broom.

Corrieshalloch Gorge is one of the most spectacular gorges in Scotland, and demonstrates how erosion resulting from the rapid melting of glaciers at lead to the formation of deep gorges. The gorge formed at the end of the Quaternary ice age around 10-13,000 years, as the meltwater from ice sheets that covered northern Scotland between 2.6 million and 11,500 years ago exploited existing lines of weakness in the Moine bedrock.