Image Details
I was out in the early morning hunting landscapes to photograph along the western shore of Scotland's Loch Ewe. I had traveled north past the small community of Coast when this scene caught my eye. I have passed by here many times, but neither the house nor the path which snaked down towards it had caught my attention before.
The house was quite solitary, situated on a rocky point called An Fhaighear Bheag by the shores of Loch Ewe, with the distant Beinn Ghobhlach looming over it; a home set in the wilderness.
I took some time to decide on a viewpoint, eventually coming back to where I had originally viewed the scene. I'd taken a few shots when a yacht came into view, did I want that too? I took some shots with the yacht and left the decision till later.
Across the loch the first landmass is the western shore of the Isle of Ewe, beyond that are the hills around the village of Aultbea, one or two houses are just visible, and finally Beinn Ghobhlach, the forked mountain.
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.
An Fhaighear Bheag & Mhóir; A rocky point on the western shore of Loch Ewe at Coast. Listed by Professor Watson [p229] as Am Faithir Beag meaning the little shelving declivity and Am Faithir Mór meaning ‘the big shelving declivity’. I feel that Fhaighear or Faithir is probably the origin of the ‘Fire’ in the place name ‘Firemore’. Note that Dixon when referring to Firemore said that its Gaelic name is Faidhir Mor which he describes as a ‘great market’, from Faidhir, a fair or market.
Aultbea; From Watson; In Gaelic it is an Fhàin - the gentle slope, locative case of am Fàn. The real Aultbea, Gaelic Allt-Beithe, ‘birch burn’ is the stream that runs through the village. The Aultbea coast in Gaelic is an t-Eirthire Donn, ‘the brown coast’. The Scottish Parliament website claims that an older Gaelic name for Aultbea was Am Fàn Braonach, meaning ‘the slope of the Loch Broom area’. Considering the distance between Aultbea and Loch Broom I find this an odd connection.
Beinn Ghobhlach; Gaelic A’ Bheinn Ghobhlach; the forked hill.
Coast; A small village on the western shores of Loch Ewe. From the Gaelic an t-Eirthire meaning ‘sea coast’.
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.”
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