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Taken on a typically cold overcast winters day, but enlivened by some fleeting light, this view has everything I would wish for in wilderness landscape. It may be noticed that many of my landscapes feature water, for me there is just an added extra when ever water comes into view.
I had left the car at the Tollie lay-by and walked north until I reached the top of Croft Hill, which rises up over the River Ewe. It was my first visit to this place, and I was surprised at the magnificent view; it had not been expected. From this view point I was looking south-east down the entire length of Scotland's Loch Maree and beyond to Glen Docherty. On the left rises the massive hulk of Beinn Airigh Charr, and in the middle of Loch Maree, Isle Maree stands alone.
To the left of Isle Maree, and just before it is Witches Point, also visible to the left is the beginning of River Ewe where it flows out of Loch Maree. This one view made the cold days effort in the hills worthwhile, but with the bonus of other images captured on the same day.
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.
Beinn Airigh Charr; Gaelic. Listed by Watson as Binn Airigh a’ Charr and explained as ‘hill of the shieling of the projecting rock or shelf’. Listed in Dixon’s ‘Gairloch & Guide to Loch Maree’ as Beinn Aridh Charr its meaning is given as ‘the mountain of the rough shieling’ from the following roots; Beinn, ‘mountain’, aridh (accepted spelling is àirigh), ‘a shieling’, charr, a corruption of garbh, ‘rough’.
Croft Hill; This is a hill at Poolewe and I could not find any reference to this place name in my place name sources. It may be derived from the Gaelic, Croit, meaning ‘a croft’ or a ‘hump on the back’. There are crofts at the base of this hill adjacent to the River Ewe, and it is no stretch of the imagination to see this hill, rising out of the plain as viewed from Poolewe, as a ‘hump on the back’.
Glen Docherty; Listed by Professor Watson as Glen Docharty; Gaelic Gleann Dochartaich, from the negative prefix do and cartach, ‘scoury’, or ‘place of scouring’; ‘Glen of evil (i.e., excessive) scouring’ which describes it well.
Isle Maree; See Loch Maree.
Loch Maree; Gaelic Loch-Ma-rui(bh), Loch of St Maelrubha, an Irish monk who came to Scotland in 671A.D founding a church in Applecross before coming to Loch Maree where he founded another church on the island now known as Isle Maree. Professor Watson writes in his ‘Place names of Ross & Cromarty’ on page 230 “That Loch Maree was formerly called Loch Ewe is clear from the fact that the River Ewe issues from it, that Kinlochewe (meaning ‘Head of Loch Ewe’) stands at its upper end, and Letterewe on its north side”.
River Ewe; The River Ewe, Gaelic, Abhainn lu. Professor Watson said “that he had taken iu, with hesitation, from the Irish eo, 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 River Ewe may be a Pictish name from the same root, or from a totally different one.”
Tollie; Gaelic is Tollaidh, ‘place of the holes’, there are also Tollie Farm, Tollie Bay, Tollie Rock, Tollie Burn and Loch Tollaidh
Witches Point; A common local name for a promontory on the eastern shore of Loch Maree, its Gaelic name being Rudha Chailleach, meaning ‘point of the old woman. According to J H Dixon this is the point where it is supposed women accused of witchcraft used to be ducked, or more probably drowned, but that no stories of witches connected with it are now extant.
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