List of lakes and lochs of the United Kingdom


The list of lakes, lochs, loughs and llyns of the United Kingdom is a link page for some large lakes of the United Kingdom, including lochs fully enclosed by land.
Lakes in Scotland are called lochs, and in Northern Ireland loughs. In Wales a lake is called a llyn. The words "loch" and "lough", in addition to referring to bodies of freshwater, are also applied to bodies of brackish water or seawater, which in other countries or contexts may be called fjord, firth, estuary, bay etc. In particular, the term "sea-loch" is used in Scotland in this way, as the English language equivalent of 'fjord'.
Some of the largest lakes in England and Wales are man-made reservoirs, or lakes whose size has been increased by damming.

Largest water bodies in the United Kingdom

This table includes the ten largest fresh water bodies by area. Lough Neagh is the largest water body in the UK by this measure, although Loch Ness is the largest by volume and contains nearly double the amount of water in all the lakes of England and Wales combined. Loch Morar is the deepest of the UK's lakes and Loch Awe the longest. Murray and Pullar note that the mean depth of Loch Ness is 57.4% of the maximum depth – higher than in any other large deep loch in Scotland. The deepest lake in England is Wast Water which descends to 76 metres.
NameLocationArea Area Volume Length Max. depth Mean depth
Lough NeaghNorthern Ireland38330259
Lower Lough ErneNorthern Ireland2962
Loch LomondScotland713619037
Loch NessScotland5639230132
Upper Lough ErneNorthern Ireland19
Loch AweScotland39419432
Loch MareeScotland2011438
Loch MorarScotland2731087
Loch TayScotland23150
Loch ShinScotland49

Largest natural lakes in England

LakeArea
Windermere5.69
Ullswater3.44
Bassenthwaite Lake2.06
Derwent Water2.06

Largest natural lakes in Wales

These are largely 'natural' but some have minor modifications to regulate their outflow.
LakeArea
Llyn Tegid1.87
Llangorse Lake0.59
Llyn Cowlyd0.42
Llyn Padarn0.38
Tal-y-llyn lake0.34
Llyn Cwellyn0.34
Llyn Llywenan0.20
Kenfig Pool0.11

Largest reservoirs in the United Kingdom