Hillend Loch

Hillend Loch sits immediately to the East of Caldercruix, near the town of Airdrie, in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The loch has a large catchment area in the hills which surround it and six feeder stream drain these hills and their moorland. It has a surface area of 345 acres (140 ha) and its surface is 650 feet (200 m) above sea level.^[1] The railway line between Airdrie and Bathgate runs along the southern shore of Hillend Loch.^[2] National Cycle Route 75 runs alongside the railway on the southern shore, having been rebuilt as part of the re-opening of the Airdrie–Bathgate rail link.^[3]

Hillend Loch is a naturalised reservoir established between 1797 and 1799 when the North Calder Water was dammed to supply water for the Monkland Canal, an enterprise which employed up to 1,500 people at one time. It was, at the time the dam was constructed, the largest man-made reservoir in the world. It still supplies water to the Forth & Clyde Canal and the remains of the Monkland Canal. As well as the storage of water for the canals, the loch was used to supply water to the steel and paper mills in the new industrial towns of Airdrie and Coatbridge.^[4]

In 1867 the reservoir passed into the ownership of the Caledonian Railway, and when the railways were nationalised in 1948 became publicly owned as part of British Waterways.

The fishing rights have been managed by Airdrie & District Angling Club since 1949 and they stock the loch during the angling season on a weekly basis. It has a naturally occurring stock of brown trout but these are supplemented by stocking with brown trout and the non-native rainbow trout. Fishing is by permit and fishing both from boats and from the shore is allowed.^[1]