Lake · United Kingdom
Loch Assynt
Loch Asainn
Lake in Highland, Scotland, UK, outflows to the River Inver and Loch na Garbh Uidhe
- Area
- 7.1km²
- Max depth
- 86m
- Average depth
- 15m
- Elevation
- 66m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 26km
- Volume
- 0.104km³
Loch Assynt is a lake in United Kingdom. It covers 7.1 km². On average it is 15 m deep, and 86 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 66 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Loch Assynt?
The water is warmest in July, around 17 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 3 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 16 °C on average in July and 5 °C in January. The driest month is April (83 mm of rain), the wettest January (137 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (51 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 137 | 22 | 0.3 | 26 |
| February | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 107 | 20 | 1.7 | 25 |
| March | 3 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 104 | 21 | 3.3 | 24 |
| April | 6 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 83 | 19 | 5.5 | 21 |
| May | 10 | 13 | 12 | 6 | 100 | 19 | 6.8 | 19 |
| June | 15 | 16 | 14 | 8 | 102 | 21 | 5.7 | 18 |
| July | 17 | 17 | 16 | 10 | 117 | 23 | 5.2 | 17 |
| August | 16 | 17 | 15 | 10 | 130 | 23 | 4.7 | 18 |
| September | 13 | 15 | 13 | 8 | 120 | 20 | 3.4 | 21 |
| October | 10 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 135 | 22 | 2.0 | 22 |
| November | 7 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 124 | 23 | 0.7 | 24 |
| December | 5 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 131 | 22 | 0.0 | 25 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 8 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 104 km² of land.
- About 5.0 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.8 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Loch Assynt
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 6beaches and swimming spots
- —campsites
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 3viewpoints
Leitir Easaidh
- 3hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Inchnadamph Hotel, Inchnadamph Lodge, Loch Assynt Lodge
- —fishing spots
- —restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Stornoway Airport (SYY), 74 km in a straight line.
Car hire at INV airport (Inverness)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 4.7 | 4.7 | 6.1 | 8.8 | 11.5 | 13.9 | 15.5 | 15.1 | 13.3 | 10.2 | 7.2 | 5.3 |
| 2020 | +1.8 | ±0.0 | ±0.0 | +0.9 | +0.4 | +1.2 | −1.8 | +0.9 | ±0.0 | −0.8 | +1.2 | −0.1 |
| 2021 | −2.0 | −0.8 | +0.8 | −1.4 | −1.4 | +0.6 | +1.9 | +0.8 | +1.7 | +0.6 | +1.0 | −0.1 |
| 2022 | +1.9 | +0.7 | +1.9 | +0.5 | +0.3 | +0.9 | +0.1 | +0.7 | +0.6 | +1.3 | +1.6 | −1.3 |
| 2023 | +0.4 | +2.1 | −1.0 | +0.9 | +1.1 | +4.2 | +0.2 | +0.8 | +1.7 | −0.3 | −0.6 | −0.2 |
| 2024 | +0.1 | +1.0 | +1.0 | −0.4 | +3.8 | −1.0 | −0.8 | −0.1 | +0.2 | +0.7 | +0.8 | +1.7 |
| 2025 | −0.1 | +0.6 | +2.1 | +2.6 | +1.9 | +0.6 | +2.0 | +1.7 | +0.5 | +0.5 | +0.1 | +1.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United Kingdom31.5 km² · 28 km away18°maxLoch MareeUnited Kingdom25.2 km² · 59 km away16°maxLoch NessUnited Kingdom51.6 km² · 102 km away16°maxLoch OichUnited Kingdom1.4 km² · 123 km away17°maxLoch MorarUnited Kingdom25.4 km² · 142 km away15°maxLoch LochyUnited Kingdom16.2 km² · 138 km away16°maxAbout these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q911980) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
