Loch Ashaig

Also within

Ross and Cromarty County

Condition (NatureScot)

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Quaternary

Description

Loch Ashaig Loch Ashaig Site of Special Scientific interest (SSSI) is located about 4 km east of Broadford, Isle of Skye, on hill ground above Upper Breakish. It is one of several key pollen sites on the island which together provide an important contribution to the reconstruction and understanding of the Holocene vegetation history of western Scotland. Loch Ashaig is particularly significant in providing a detailed and dated pollen record from the only area on the Isle of Skye where fossil pine stumps have been discovered. It is of considerable palaeoecological importance in illustrating the extremely localised geographical distribution of pine during the Holocene period and the local but very rapid extinction of pine close to the limits of its geographical range. The vegetation history at Loch Ashaig compares with that of part of Wester Ross in the “predominant pine forest” zone and contrasts markedly with southern and northern Skye where there is no evidence of the existence of pine. Together with other key pollen sites at Loch Meodal and Loch Cleat, Loch Ashaig illustrates the considerable variation in the Holocene vegetation history and forest composition of Skye. Nowhere else in Scotland or in north-west Europe can such a range of variation be found in such a small area.