Loch Melfort, Scottish Highlands, Scotland

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Loch Melfort is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland, in Argyll and Bute, opening onto the Firth of Lorn roughly fifteen miles south of Oban. Sheltered by low wooded hills and scattered with small islands near its mouth, it is a quiet, intricate inlet where the mainland breaks up into the archipelago of the Inner Hebrides, with the Slate Islands and the hills of Mull visible out to sea. The loch is a popular haven for sailors, with moorings and a marina at Craobh Haven and anchorages near the small settlements of Kilmelford and Arduaine at its eastern end. The surrounding area benefits from the mild, damp influence of the Gulf Stream, which allows lush vegetation to flourish. Arduaine Garden, on the loch's southern shore and now cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, is renowned for its rhododendrons and other exotic plants. Being there means changeable skies, soft light over still water, and the smell of seaweed and bracken, with seals, otters and seabirds often seen along the rocky shoreline. The area has long been tied to the sea and the land, and in the nineteenth century a gunpowder works operated near Kilmelford, a reminder of the industry that once existed in what now feels like a peaceful corner of the Highlands.