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I had been in the forest at Strathbeag at Dundonnell getting some autumnal shots in the low November sun. As I was packing up to leave, the weather changed for the worse and some light rain began to fall. Thinking that the opportunity for more shots that day might be over, I decided to use the time to explore the other side of the peninsula I was on before returning home.
I was on the peninsula that lies between Little Loch Broom and Loch Broom on Scotland's north-west coast, and I was on the Little Loch Broom side. There is a track going over the peninsula eventually leading to Allt na h-Airbhe on the shores of Loch Broom, and it was this track I took for the first time wondering what I would see.
As I came over the crest of the hill I was able to see that there were wonderful views of Loch Broom and Coigach, and sandwiched between them was the village of Rhue, and just beyond was Isle Martin.
Isle Martin is now uninhabited, becoming so in 1949 when the last family left the island and the school closed. The island was in private ownership for a while, following which it was gifted to the RSPB in 1970, who in turn offered it to the local community in 1999. The local community formed the Isle Martin Trust, a registered charity, as a guardian for the island.
This kind of view typifies for me the scattered communities one sees throughout the North-west Highlands, clinging to a small patch of fertile soil amidst the awesome wilderness. Many people living and working in places like this find their being becomes at one with this amazing landscape, such that even the very thought of having to live elsewhere is like death.
Copyright © 1998 Gordon C Harrison All Rights Reserved