Image Details
Heading north from Gruinard Bay the road starts a long ascent up the Druim Nam Fuath; at the top is a fine viewpoint from which one can enjoy the entire panorama of Little Loch Broom. Descending from the view point for about two kilometres brings one to the entrance to a side single track road running north-west, parallel to Little Loch Broom, and eventually ending at Badluarach.
On the day this photograph was taken I had been on the hill above Badluarach for the first time exploring the area and it's opportunities for landscapes. I was not having the best of days, found nothing to inspire and after a while decide to move to a different spot.
I walked back down the hill to the single track road and started to walk back to the car, about a mile away. After a few minutes I happened to look behind me only to be presented with the scene above. I couldn't move quick enough to get a shot of this, the showers had been fleeting and I knew the rainbow could fade quickly. I had time for two shots each with a different lens.
The fact that I had been presented with such a good foreground is pure serendipity, on most occasions when rainbows present themselves it is usually in a spot where getting a good composition is difficult or downright impossible.
It was autumn, the rowan tree's leaves had been stripped leaving only the berries behind and the traditional stone byre with it's red corrugated roof complemented the splash of colour made by the rowan. On the opposite shore of Little Loch Broom the dark silhouette of Cailleach Head is pointing the way to the Summer Isles seen to it's left.
On the opposite shore is the village of Scoraig. To reach this village it is necessary to either take a boat across from the jetty at Badluarach, or take the long walk in of about five kilometres over the hill from Badrallach where the road on the opposite shore ends. There is no road to Scoraig, nor an electricity supply either, the villagers generate their own from windmills. I will write in further detail about this remarkable community with other photographs at a later date.
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.
Badluarach; Written as Badluachrach by Watson. The clump of rushes, from luachair, rushes.
Druim Nam Fuath; Gaelic; The ridge above Mungasdale. No complete reference to this name has been found but Watson notes for other names containing the fuath element that it is referring to spectres or goblins, thus it translates as ‘the ridge of the goblins (or spectres)’.
Cailleach Head; Professor Watson notes that in Gaelic it is Sròn na Cailleach meaning the nun’s point; in O.S.A. Rudha Shanndraig. Professor Watson does not explain what O.S.A is, however I assume he is referring to the Old Statistical Accounts. Cailleach is commonly thought to mean ‘old woman’ but I have read it has a wider usage and could denote a nun, an old woman, a widow, or a witch.
It was not clear to me why Professor Watson decided on the meaning ‘nun’ until a reader of this page kindly emailed me an explanation as follows – “Regarding Gaelic grammar the genitive plural is the same as the nominative singular so Sròn na Cailleach is 'nose of the old women' (not woman). Nuns were often called cailleach dubh (plural cailleachan dubha) - old black woman. There is a ruin in Uig, Lewis, called Taigh nan Cailleachan Dubha, 'The Nun's House’, so Professor Watson was probably correct.” [1]
Gruinard Bay; possibly from the Norse grunnfjörðr meaning shallow firth.
Little Loch Broom; Gaelic an Loch Beag according to Watson, i.e. ‘the little loch’. He does not explain the origin of its anglicised name and I assume it is derived after its nearby neighbour, Loch Broom, being small in comparison to it. The name Loch Broom is an anglicised version of its true Gaelic name which is Loch Bhraoin. Bhraoin means a 'drop of water or rain' and is named after the river that flows from Loch a' Bhraoin high in the Braemore (Am Braigh Mor).
Scoraig; Written as Sgoraig by Watson, from the Norse sgor-vík, ‘rift bay’, from a narrow gully at the place.
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.