A settlement south west of Antigonish famed for its black cattle.

Named for a mountainous district in Invernesshire, Scotland, from which the
first settlers emigrated.  About 1808, Malcolm McMillan, Hugh McMillan, John
Cameron (Red) and John Cameron (Squire) settled near the head of Lochaber
Lake in what is now called north Lochaber and named the district in honour
of their native place.  In 1816 several families of Stewarts, natives of Rannoch,
Scotland, settled on what was known as the Stewart farm adjoining Malcolm
MacMillan's and raised a large family.  They were joined by Archibald MacEachern
and by John Inglis or Ingles, a Lowland Scot who had been long at Musquodoboit
in Nova Scotia.  These settlers were Presbyterians.  The Scots were joined in the
Lochaber district by some Roman Catholic families from Ireland - McGinley, Sears,
Hannifan, Duggan, Wall, Cleney, Moore, Murphy, Martin, Carroll, and Connors.

The Lochaber school section was first named Lochaber East side and West Lochaber
was named Lower Lochaber west side and ran northward along the lake and included
the back settlement.  North Lochaber had been named at an early date Lochaber and
Glen Alpine.  The school was remodeled and reopened in 1926.  There was a school
at Lochaber in 1829 and in 1848.  Angus Cameron was teaching thirty children at
Lochaber Glen.  In 1953 four Lochaber school sections (Nos. 43, 44, 45 and 46) were
consolidated into one section named Lochaber No. 43, and Donald Henderson was
teaching 35 pupils at Lochaber Lake in 1829.

There was a postal way office at Lochaber from 1852 to 1867 and in 1868 John Sears
was postmaster.  There was a postal way office at West Lochaber in 1861 and where
Alexander Stewart was postmaster in 1870.

The Presbyterian settlers in the Lochaber district built a church on the old road to the
Upper South River and later a large and well finished church near the Lake.  Before there
was a church building Dr. James McGregor of Pictou paid occasional visits as did Rev.
Thomas Trotter after he came to Antigonish.  The first resident pastor over the Lochaber
and Upper South River congregations was the Rev. Alexander McGillivray who came in
1833.  A new Presbyterian church at Lochaber called Chalmers was opened in 1869 and
a United Church at North Lochaber was built about 1931, and dedicated October 4, 1931.

In 1956 the population of Lochaber was fifty-five and the population of North Lochaber eighty.
 

LOCHABER LAKE, Antigonish County

A lake south west of Antigonish, also called College Lake.  It was discovered by
Alexander Fraser about 1795 when he was moose hunting with the Indians.

See College Lake.
 

NORTH LOCHABER, Antigonish County

Settlement south west of Antigonish so named because it is north of the lake.