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Martinham Loch
MARTINHAM (Loch), a lake in the parishes of
Coylston and Dalrymple,
chiefly in the former, in the district of Kyle, Ayrshire. It stretches
from north-east to south-west, in a stripe 1½ mile in length, and 1
furlong in mean breadth. From Loch-Fergus, a smaller lake lying
half-a-mile to the north-west, it receives one stream, and at its own
north-eastern extremity it receives another, and these it sends off at
its other end, in a stream 2½ miles long, to the Doon near Dalrymple
church. Its waters abound in pike, perch, and eel, and are frequented
by
wild geese, wild ducks, the teal, and the widgeon. Some of its pike
have
weighed nearly 30 pounds. On the bosom of the lake is an islet so
completely wooded, as to look like a basket of foliage; amidst its
woods
are the ruins of an ancient manor-house, 100 feet long, and 30 wide;
and
both the ruined walls and the trees which surround them are thickly
overrun with ivy. On a graceful low promontory on the north-west side
of
the lake, stands Martinham-lodge; and here and elsewhere the banks are
so
beautifully sylvan as to render the lake a peculiarly refreshing
retreat
amid the play of a summer sun's rays.
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