Image Details
On the Isle of Skye's western seaboard, north of Moonen Bay, a gigantic finger of rock, carved over countless ages by wild seas, thrusts its way out into the Little Minch.
There are many natural landscape wonders on the Isle of Skye, an island of the Scottish west coast, and for me Neist Point ranks with the very best of them. I had been here once before the taking of this photograph but it had been a frustrating day for photography, and the gales had been so bad my tripod was not only useless in the face of the onslaught, it got damaged to boot, not a happy day.
A couple of years later I was back on Skye, this time determined to go to Neist Point and come back with at least one image. It was a reasonable day and I spent a couple of hours exploring the cliff tops in this area looking for a suitable viewpoint. Eventually I came upon the above viewpoint with the projecting rock on the left, which conveniently, to my mind at least, had a crack in the top of the rock that could be lined up with the path on the peninsula.
The only problem I had was that to achieve this composition I had to be perched right on the edge of the cliff, as were the two front tripod legs, the tripod itself extended forward by increasing the extension of the rear leg, with me leaning forward slightly in order to peer into the viewfinder, the tripod taking my weight, and I hoping that the tripod legs would not slip. I should mention at this point I have no head for exposed heights, but sometimes I have to get into what I consider to be very uncomfortable situations to get the shot I want. I remember wondering if was worth the risk of death just to get a landscape shot, but I had to do this thing.
Unfortunately as I was about to start shooting a crowd of people suddenly appeared below on the peninsula wandering around somewhat at random, but generally with the intention of walking out to the lighthouse. Damn! I am going to have to wait on this edge until they all disappear!
There is a cleft in the cliff face, which rises above the Neist Point peninsula, and into this cleft a series of steps have been carved. To the left of the start of this staircase is a winch house, from which a wire hawser makes it's way down to the bottom of the cliff. Suspended from the wire hawser is a wooden cradle into which goods can be placed, and by operating the winch the cradle and it's contents can be lowered to the foot of the cliff.
Having done this you walk down the staircase pick up your goods and carry them out along the path to the lighthouse. This winch no doubt was used by the lighthouse keeper in the days when the lighthouse was manned to ease a little the labour of getting provisions to the lighthouse. However there must still have been a good deal of carrying to and from the lighthouse, not pleasant work on a bad day on an exposed peninsula.
Nowadays the lighthouse keeper's cottages are let as holiday homes, and so, for the more intrepid holiday makers, the winch house is still a very much used labour saving device.
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.
Moonen Bay; The only reference I have found so far is one states that the bay is named after a legendary Ossianic figure named Munan (perhaps Muna?).
Neist Point; An Éist, ‘The Horse’ from Norse. A more full name is An Éist Fhiadhaich, ‘wild Neist’. In Gaelic Neist Point is Rubha na h- Éist or Gob na h-Éist.
Skye; Skye's history includes the influence of Gaelic, Norse and English speaking peoples and the relationships between their names for the island are not straightforward. The Gaelic name for the "Isle of Skye" is An t-Eilean Sgitheanach (or Sgiathanach, a more recent and less common spelling). The meaning of this name is not clear. Various explanations have been proposed, such as the ‘winged isle’ or ‘the notched isle’ but no definitive solution has been found to date.
The Little Minch; In Gaelic is an Cuan Canach where Cuan translates as 'sea' but Canach translates as bog cotton or cotton grass which is obviously not a satisfactory answer. Research to date has yet to find a more satisfactory explanation.
Images; Copyright © Gordon C Harrison All Rights Reserved. No reproduction without permission.
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