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One of the delights of Scotland's most northern county, Sutherland, is an area called Assynt. The first time Isabel and I ever went to Sutherland it was to spend two weeks holiday staying at a B&B in Gleann Leireag. It was also the first time I had ever driven on a single-track road, and I certainly found the tortuous road to Gleann Leireag from near Kylesku very challenging as a novice single-tracker!
After what seemed an endless drive through a completely uninhabited wilderness, a couple of houses appeared at the bottom of a steep hill which I took to be the 'village' of Gleann Leireag. Stopping to inquire at one of the houses I knocked on the door I asked the gentleman who answered it if he would tell me where Mr & Mrs MacAulay lived.
"No I will not!" was the loud and completely unexpected reply I received. Thinking that I had inadvertently intruded into some local clan war I turned to walk away in case I should be accused of being an enemy spy.
As I did so the gentleman broke into a smile and admitted that he was the said Mr MacAulay! And so began a friendship with Nina and Ian MacAulay, a delightful couple with a great sense of humour, charm and endless interesting conversation. We had a wonderful two weeks stay with Iain and Nina that we shall never forget.
This photograph was not taken on that holiday, but taken as a result of a visit in 2007 to make contact with Nina again. Sadly Iain had died a few years before and we had not met Nina since then. The visit was to be a surprise and it was good to meet up and catch up on each others lives.
After our visit and not long after leaving Nina we came to a view that I've always loved. This is of Canisp and Suilven at a viewpoint on the Assynt coastal road just north of Lochinver. This view is typical of the Sutherland landscape, widely spaced mountains rising out of the rugged plain.
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.
Assynt; From the Norse Asaint or Asaint meaning ‘ridge end’.
Canisp; No reference to this name in my preferred sources. According to Wikipedia it is from a Norse word meaning ‘the white mountain’.
Gleann Leireag; Gaelic, meaning ‘Larch Glen’.
Kylesku; Gaelic Caolas Cumhang meaning ‘the narrow strait’.
Lochinver; A town in Sutherland, named after Loch Inver, which see.
Loch Inver; In Sutherland, Gaelic Loch an Inbhir meaning ‘the loch at the river mouth.
Suilven; A very dramatic shaped mountain in Sutherland. None of the authoritative sources I use list this name. Researching other sources on the web indicates its name is an amalgam of Norse and Gaelic derived from Sula Bheinn, where Sula is Norse for pillar and Bheinn is Gaelic for mountain.
Sutherland; From the Norse Suðerland, that is ‘South Land’. It may seem odd that the far north of Scotland should have a name which means ‘South Land’, but if you were on Viking raiding party from Norway it would have been an obvious name to choose.
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