It is situated at the head of Loch Ryan, an arm of the North Channel (Irish Sea), 59 m.
On the coast of Loch Nell, or Ardmucknish Bay, is the vitrified fort of Beregonium, not to be confounded with Rerigonium (sometimes miscalled Berigonium) on Loch Ryan in Wigtownshire - a town of the Novantae Picts, identified with Innermessan.
The oyster beds, for which Loch Ryan was once noted, are not cultivated, but the fisheries (white fish and herrings) are still of some consequence.
A desperate scuffle took place, Ryan being mortally wounded by Fitzgerald with a dagger, while Lord Edward himself was only secured after Sirr had disabled him with a pistol bullet in the shoulder.
It runs from the mouth of Loch Ryan in a sinuous north-easterly direction, keeping near the northern limit of the region till it reaches the basin of the Nith, where it quits the Uplands altogether, descends into the lowlands of Ayrshire, and, after circling round the headwaters of the Nith, strikes south-eastwards across half the breadth of the Uplands, then sweeps north and eastwards between the basins of the Clyde, Tweed and Annan, and then through the moors that surround.
