The loch is among the last remaining fragments of the Caledonian pinewood, which is native to the UK.

[1] The main tributaries are the Dessarry and the Pean, which flow through the glens of the same names, falling into the loch at the extreme west end, by the settlement of Strathan.

The mountains of Lochaber lie to the north, and the Forest of Locheil to the south.

Two small islands lie at the eastern end of the loch, the larger of which, Island Columbkill, or Eilean Loch Airceig, is the site of a ruined chapel dedicated to St Columba which is the former burial ground of the Camerons of Locheil.

James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury and twice foreign minister during Queen Victoria's reign, recorded in his Memoirs of an Ex-Minister: