Image Details
On first trying to photograph Aultbea village I found myself baffled with what seemed endless telephone poles and the like intruding into the viewpoints I selected. Of course one can choose to remove them in Photoshop but this can be a chore compared to the painter that can simply ignore them. I always prefer to find an unobstructed viewpoint.
A few years ago I was commissioned to produce some images of Aultbea to be used by a local business that let out their holiday chalets to tourists. Of course it was necessary to have the chalets set within a scenic view of their surroundings including the village of Aultbea and Loch Ewe beyond .
As usual I planned the shoot on my ordnance survey maps deciding what elements I wanted in the shot and using the location of the chalets determined an angle of view thereby deciding on a potential location. Nowadays I would of course use Google Earth to help with with these decisions, especially now that much of the North-west Highlands is available there in high resolution.
I checked out the location to see if my planning had come up with a good location and on seeing the view I was very pleased with the prospect. Now all I had to do was to wait on good 'tourist type' weather. A good day arrived and I set off on a drive of no more than five minutes. The village I live in, Laide, is quite close to Aultbea.
I parked the car and the remainder of the trip had to be made on foot along a track leading into the hills from Drumchork Hotel. After a few minutes I came upon a herd of cows all congregated together in front of a gate that I had to go through. I've always been a bit wary of cows, probably as a result of reading newspaper stories over the years about farmers being trampled to death by them.
I either had to turn back or walk through this melee of cows to get to the viewpoint I selected. I chose to go on and they let me pass, whew! I got to the viewpoint and spent some time taking various shots of which the above is one. Now I wondered if I would have to push through the cows again on the way back; fortunately they had dispersed.
In this scene showing Aultbea village and Loch Ewe the long narrow peninsula jutting into Loch Ewe is called Aird Point. Beyond it is the northern end of the Isle of Ewe, and beyond the island is the western shore of Loch Ewe, the Inverasdale peninsula. Finally, and very faintly in the far distance, one can see the outline of the Isle of Harris and Lewis.
North-west Highland Place Names
The landscape of the North-west Highlands and the Gaelic language are intimately connected. Other languages have contributed to the richness of our place names, notably Norse, but the North-west Highlands have for centuries been a Gaelic landscape. In listing the meanings of place names I have relied on authoritative sources wherever possible. For further information about sources please refer to North-west Highland Place Names in the main menu.
Aird Point; At Aultbea, the word aird is Gaelic for a promontory in this place name.
Aultbea; From Watson; In Gaelic it is an Fhàin - the gentle slope, locative case of am Fàn. The real Aultbea, Gaelic Allt-Beithe, ‘birch burn’ is the stream that runs through the village. The Aultbea coast in Gaelic is an t-Eirthire Donn, ‘the brown coast’. The Scottish Parliament website claims that an older Gaelic name for Aultbea was Am Fàn Braonach, meaning ‘the slope of the Loch Broom area’. Considering the distance between Aultbea and Loch Broom I find this an odd connection.
Drumchork; Gaelic Druim a choirc, the oat ridge. There was a farm at this place, perhaps it grew oats at one time.
Harris; In Gaelic it is called Na Hearradh. The name has two possible meanings, both derived from the Norse language. One possibility is that the name is derived from the Norse Haerri meaning ‘higher’ referring to the high hills of Harris compared to the lower ground of Lewis to the north. Alternatively it may have been derived from the Norse Hérað meaning an administrative district.
Inverasdale; Village on the western shore of Loch Ewe. The following notes are by Professor Watson. In Gaelic it is Inbhir-asdal. A hybrid name; from Gaelic, inbhir, estuary; from Norse, aspi-dalr, Aspen-dale, from osp, the aspen tree. The old forms, together with the independent authority of Blaeu (a 16th century Dutch mapmaker), prove that the modern Gaelic is a contraction with compensatory lengthening of the vowel a.
Laide; The broad slope.
Lewis; Can also be written as Lews. In Gaelic it is Leòdhas or Leòdh’s and it appears in the Norse sagas as Ljóðhús and Ljóðus. There is some doubt about the true origin of this name but most toponymist’s have decided it is of Norse origin, derived from Ljóða-hús meaning ‘house of songs or lays’, in other words a céilidh house. According to Professor Watson some Lewis scholars favour it being derived from Ljót-hús, ‘Leod’s House.
Loch Ewe; Professor Watson said “that he had taken iu, with hesitation, from the Irish eo, thus ‘Loch of the yew tree’; the fact that Tobar na h-Iu in Nigg showed the article is practically decisive in favour of iu being there at least a Gaelic word. No Pictish name is accompanied by the Gaelic article. But the Ewe may be a Pictish name derived from the same root, or from a totally different one.”
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