Image Details
Just beyond Loch Tollaidh, heading north, we come to the Tollie viewpoint where the entire length of Scotland's Loch Maree comes into view. This is a scene that stops everyone in their tracks as they drive along the road between Poolewe and Gairloch. This view becomes visible on a sharp bend in the road at a place called Tollie, and those well used to travelling this road are alert for visitors who have parked in a small lay-by there, crossing back and forth over the road.
This vantage point allows a view down the entire 20 kilometre length of Loch Maree, and to the distant hills beyond, a stunning landscape, depending on the weather of course! On the day I took this photograph I was attracted by the low-lying clouds partly obscuring the hills. The small island silhouetted in the distance is Isle Maree, reputed sanctuary of St Maelrubha who brought Christianity to this area in the 7th century.
Tollie Crags are on the right, Tollie Bay in the foreground, and on the left the upper slopes of Beinn Airigh Charr are obscured by cloud. To the left, the long thin promotory projecting into Loch Maree is known locally as Witches Point.
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’.
Gairloch; Gaelic An Gearr-loch, the short loch.
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”.
Loch Tollaidh; Gaelic; ‘loch at the place of the holes’, there are also Tollie Farm, Tollie Bay, Tollie Rock, and Tollie Burn.
Poolewe; Gaelic Poll-iù, ‘the pool on the Ewe river’; Professor Watson states that the village was called by the natives in his time Abhainn Iù, Ewe River. He also said that Ewe, Gaelic iu, he had taken, with hesitation, from Irish eo, ‘Yew Tree’, but concedes that it may in fact be a Pictish name.
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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