Lake · United Kingdom
Loch Shiel
Loch Seile
Freshwater loch in Ardnamurchan, West Highlands of Scotland, UK, outflows to the River Shiel
- Area
- 18.4km²
- Max depth
- 128m
- Average depth
- 31m
- Elevation
- 3m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 66km
- Volume
- 0.579km³
Loch Shiel is a lake in United Kingdom. It covers 18.4 km². On average it is 31 m deep, and 128 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 3 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Loch Shiel?
The water is warmest in August, around 16 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 5 °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 15 °C on average in July and 5 °C in February. The driest month is April (101 mm of rain), the wettest January (209 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (59 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 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 209 | 24 | 0.4 | 26 |
| February | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 150 | 21 | 1.7 | 24 |
| March | 5 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 143 | 22 | 3.0 | 23 |
| April | 7 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 101 | 19 | 4.9 | 20 |
| May | 10 | 11 | 12 | 6 | 124 | 18 | 5.9 | 18 |
| June | 13 | 14 | 14 | 9 | 125 | 20 | 4.6 | 17 |
| July | 15 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 143 | 23 | 4.4 | 16 |
| August | 16 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 164 | 24 | 3.8 | 18 |
| September | 13 | 15 | 13 | 9 | 161 | 21 | 3.3 | 20 |
| October | 10 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 189 | 23 | 2.0 | 22 |
| November | 7 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 180 | 23 | 0.9 | 23 |
| December | 6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 203 | 23 | 0.2 | 24 |
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 12 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 244 km² of land.
- About 19 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 4.3 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Loch Shiel
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 1beaches and swimming spots
- —campsites
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 8viewpoints
Glenfinnan Viaduct Viewpoint, Glenfinnan Viewpoint, Loch Shiel, Glenfinnan Station and 4 more
- 7hotels, B&Bs and chalets
The School House, Back Track Bothies, Glenfinnan House Hotel, The Prince's House Hotel, The Sleeping Car and 2 more
- —fishing spots
- 6restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Tiree Airport (TRE), 86 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 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 6.1 | 8.9 | 11.8 | 14.1 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 13.3 | 10.3 | 7.4 | 5.4 |
| 2020 | +1.7 | +0.2 | −0.1 | +1.0 | +0.4 | +1.2 | −1.8 | +1.3 | −0.1 | −0.6 | +1.3 | ±0.0 |
| 2021 | −2.3 | −1.0 | +0.8 | −1.2 | −1.3 | +0.5 | +2.6 | +1.5 | +1.8 | +0.7 | +1.0 | −0.2 |
| 2022 | +1.7 | +1.0 | +1.8 | +0.8 | ±0.0 | +0.4 | +0.3 | +1.0 | +1.0 | +1.2 | +1.6 | −1.3 |
| 2023 | +0.5 | +2.2 | −0.4 | +0.8 | +1.0 | +4.3 | +0.2 | +0.7 | +1.8 | ±0.0 | −0.6 | ±0.0 |
| 2024 | ±0.0 | +1.2 | +1.1 | ±0.0 | +3.4 | −1.1 | −0.5 | −0.5 | +0.4 | +0.9 | +0.5 | +1.7 |
| 2025 | −0.2 | +0.6 | +2.0 | +2.4 | +2.5 | +0.3 | +1.6 | +1.8 | +0.1 | +0.5 | ±0.0 | +1.1 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
United Kingdom25.4 km² · 21 km away15°maxLoch LochyUnited Kingdom16.2 km² · 40 km away16°maxLoch ArkaigUnited Kingdom15.1 km² · 36 km away17°maxLoch AweUnited Kingdom36.5 km² · 59 km away17°maxLoch NessUnited Kingdom51.6 km² · 91 km away16°maxLoch OichUnited Kingdom1.4 km² · 59 km away17°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 (Q1867298) · 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.
