1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Shiel, Loch

SHIEL, LOCH, a lake near the Atlantic seaboard of Scotland, lying between the district of Moidart in Inverness-shire and the districts of Ardgour and Sunart in Argyllshire. The boundary line between the two counties is drawn lengthwise down the centre of the lake and is continued down the river Shiel to the sea. The loch is 17½ m. long and varies in width from 200 yds. to 1 m., and is only 11½ ft. above the sea. The maximum depth is 420 ft. with a mean depth of 81½ ft. The lake has an area of 4840 acres or 7½ sq. m., and drains directly a basin of 72½ sq. m., and with an outflow from Loch Dilate, or Doilake, of 85½ sq. m. Loch Dilate lies 1½ m. E. of Loch Shiel, into which it flows by the Polloch. It is 1½ m. long at its maximum, with a maximum depth of 55 ft., and covers an area of 142 acres. For fully three-fourths of its length Loch Shiel has a south-westerly direction, but at Eilean Fhianain (Finnan's Island) it strikes towards the west. It receives the Finnan and other small streams and discharges by the Shiel to the salt-water Loch Moidart. On the north-west and south-east it is skirted by lofty hills (Sgor Choileam (3164), Sgor nau Coireachan (3133) and others of over 2000 ft.), but the land at the western extremity in Ardnamurchan is low-lying.