Image Details
It was within a few days of mid-summer and we were enjoying the wonderful long days we are blessed with in Scotland's North-west Highlands. In fact at this time it does not get truly dark at all.
I awoke in the small hours to answer a call of nature but before returning to bed I decided to look out of our kitchen window. I was presented with this wonderful dawn with lovely diffused soft light effects in the cloudy sky and on the waters of Gruinard Bay.
I went and got my camera gear, opened the window and started to photograph the scene. What a wonderfully easy business landscape photography is I thought, hardly any effort at all. If only! This only happens once in a blue moon!
Satisfied with my efforts I returned to bed to wake up later at more civilised hour. I'm more of an evening person than a morning one, and yes, I know that early morning is great for photography. I do get up for these heroic early morning landscape delights but I have to say it is always very hard, until I'm out there in the landscape of course, then it's nothing short of wonderful.
This was shot on film and so the first person to see this image in print was Suzanne MacPherson. She worked on the front desk at B&S Graphics, who at that time did all my printing, and said to me that the red light behind the mountains reminded her of Turkish delight. So strong an impression did that remark make on me that I cannot look at this image now without thinking of Turkish delight!
The view is nothing to do with Turkey of course, taken from Laide looking over Gruinard Bay to the Achiltibuie peninsula, and beyond that to the mountains of Sutherland. In this view the leftmost mountain, Foinaven is 80 kilometres away then running left to right the other mountains are Ben Stack, Arkle, Quinag and Suilven.
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.
Achiltibuie; The Gaelic is heard as Achd-ille-bhuidhe, or Aichilidh bhuidhe, or Achill bhuidhe. From Professor Watson’s book he states that local tradition gives this name the meaning ‘Field of the yellow lad’ or ‘Cave of the yellow lad’. However he fears that this is mere popular etymology and that the first of the three Gaelic forms is a popular corruption to suit the story. The other two forms are similar to Achilty in Contin, Gaelic Achillidh, and may show the same root as the Welsh uchel, meaning ‘high’.
Arkle; There is doubt about the meaning of this name and I have come across four definitions. The transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness Volume XVI 1889-90 claim the name is derived from Gaelic earrgheal, a white tailed falcon or eagle, thus it could be ‘the mountain of the white tailed eagle’. Another possibility is given by the Scottish Outdoors website which states the name may derive from the Norse ark-fjall meaning the hill of the level or flat top. Finally Alex MacBain’s ‘Place names Highlands and Islands of Scotland’ published in 1922 suggests the name may derive from arg-fell meaning ‘Shieling’s Fell’ or from Arkfell meaning ‘ark like’.
Ben Stack; I have been unable to find a translation in any of my references of the mountain name but I feel fairly confident that this is a hybrid Gaelic/Norse name. In Gaelic it is Beinn Stack. I believe Stack is derived from the Norse stakkr meaning ‘precipitous rock’, an apt description for this extremely steep sided pyramidal mountain.
Foinavon; Gaelic is Foinne Bheinn meaning ‘the wart mountain’ in reference to the several protuberances on its summit. This definition was obtained from the ‘Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness Volume XVI 1889-90.
Gruinard Bay; possibly from the Norse grunnfjörðr meaning shallow firth.
Laide; In Gaelic it is An Leathad meaning ‘a slope’.
Quinag; From the Gaelic cuinneag, meaning a churn or a pail, referring to its shape.
Suilven; A very dramatic shaped mountain in Sutherland. None of the authoritative sources I use list this name. Researching other sources on the web indicates it's name is an amalgam of Norse and Gaelic derived from Sula Bheinn, where Sula is Norse for pillar and Bheinn is Gaelic for mountain.
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.