Perception of a conflict with English over loch (9)
I believe the answer is:
awareness
'perception' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'a conflict with english over loch' is the wordplay.
'conflict' becomes 'war' (war is a kind of conflict).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'over' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go over others).
'loch' becomes 'ness' (Loch Ness in Scotland).
'a'+'war'+'e'+'ness'='AWARENESS'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for awareness that I've seen before include "Consciousness, sentience" , "Knowing" , "Fact of consciousness" , "Consciousness, knowingness" , "understanding" .)