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I had a commission to do in Mellon Charles for a local business down by a beach known by some locals as "Jock's Beach". Afterwards, as it was such a fine summer evening, and I had not visited this place before, I decided to stay and take a few landscapes of the views from here.
The views from Mellon Charles to the Torridon mountains are dramatic and from this particular viewpoint lying directly before them is Loch Ewe and the Isle of Ewe with it's few scattered houses. At this angle of view the fact that it is an island is not discernable. Beyond the island are many of the peaks of Torridon mountains, including Beinn Eighe, Ruadh Stac Mhor, Beinn an Eoin and Baos Bheinn.
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.
Baosbheinn; Watson lists it as Bus-bheinn; Gaelic Badhais-bhinn (or baoghais-bhinn, ao short). The phonetics do not admit the popular explanation - Forehead Hill from the Gaelic bathais. The name is probably a hybrid of the same type as Suilven, Blaven, Goatfell, Gaelic Gaota-bheinn, where Norse fell, a wild hill, has been translated into Gaelic beinn, the first part being left untranslated. The Apamapa website states that the current local Gaelic is Badhaisbheinn which might mean the ’mountain of the hunt’. [1, 10]
Beinn an Eòin; Gaelic, meaning ‘bird hill’. [1]
Beinn Eighe; Gaelic meaning ‘file peak’ from its serrated outline as seen from Kinlochewe.
Isle Ewe; Gaelic is Eilean Iu. See Loch Ewe for further information.
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.”
Mellon Charles; Gaelic is Meallan Thearlaich, Charles’s Little Hill.
Rhuadh Stac; Listed by Professor Watson and J H Dixon as Ruadh stac, meaning ‘steep hill’ or ‘red peak’.
Torridon; Professor Watson gives a detailed account starting with the recorded history of this name – Torvirtayne 1464; Torrerdone 1584; Gaelic Toir(bh)eartan compare with the Irish tairbheart, to transfer, carry over, the infinitive of tairbrim. This would give the place the meaning of ‘place of transference’ with reference to the portage from the head of Loch Torridon through Glen Torridon to Loch Maree. The name applies specially to the strip of land at the head of the loch.
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