THERE are two Loch Levens (or Lochs Leven) in Scotland. The more celebrated one is in Kinross, and is famous among fly-fishermen for its brown trout, and among the historically-minded for the imprisonment in 1568 of Mary, Queen of Scots in an island castle, from which she escaped with the help of a devoted young lad.
The other Loch Leven is much less well-known, but is notable for its mountain scenery. It is a sea-loch, opening off Loch Linnhe close to Ballachulish. At its head is the village of Kinlochleven, created in its present form in the early 20th century by the British Aluminium Company to house workers in the company’s new aluminiumsmelting works.
When it was built, the village straddled the boundary between the counties of Inverness-shire and Argyll; it is now wholly within the Lochaber area of the Highlands and Islands Council Area. It seems odd to find rows of houses like those to be found in the Lowlands of Scotland in such a romantic Highland setting.