Image Details
Before finally deciding to make our home in Laide in Wester Ross we did look at houses in other places in the West Highlands. In Sutherland we looked at a fine house at Clashnessie, it had been a traditional croft house and was now extended and modernised.
Clashnessie is a very attractive place but it is much more remote from services than where we stay now. It is at least a three hour trip to Dingwall or Inverness, towns which one must inevitably visit from time to time when living in the West Highlands. Such considerations, plus the fact that the other serious contender had stunning views over Gruinard Bay made us opt for Laide.
This shot was taken on my first trip back to Clashnessie after we moved to our house in Laide. I wanted to capture some of character of the coastal scenery there and as I walked along the beach I was amazed to find these stripey rocks. Despite being on this beach countless time I had never noticed them before.
One of the problems with beach scenes is leaving footprints in the sand. When on hillsides I can wander around checking viewpoints before setting up to take the shot, but on a beach a little more thought is needed. You can very easily, in your exploration, leave footprints in the area you eventually decide to photograph!
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.
Clashnessie; Gaelic Clais an Easaidh meaning ‘the ditch by the small waterfall’.
Dingwall; From the Norse Thing-völlr meaning ‘Field of the Thing’, the Thing being the Norse general court of justice. Dingwall was therefore the centre for the Norse administration in Ross. Dingwall in Gaelic is In’ir-pheofharan, Inver-peffray, meaning the ‘mouth of the Peffer’ after the River Peffery. Inverferan appears in a Bull of Pope Alexander IV in 1256.
Laide; In Gaelic it is An Leathad meaning ‘a slope’.
Gruinard Bay; possibly from the Norse grunnfjörðr meaning shallow firth.
Images; Copyright © Gordon C Harrison All Rights Reserved. No reproduction without permission.
Moral rights asserted in all countries and under any acts that may require such assertion.