Image Details
From Tollie one can walk back over the hill tops to a point where you are overlooking the village of Poolewe and Loch Ewe. This is what I did to take this photograph.
In this view you can see the River Ewe, Scotland's shortest river, where it flows out under the bridge at Poolewe and into Loch Ewe. The village of Poolewe is clustered around the bridge, and the part that runs alongside the river is called Riverside.
The tree-lined peninsula jutting out into Loch Ewe is the home for Inverewe Gardens, one of Scotland's most popular visitor attractions. Osgood Mackenzie, born in 1842, built the garden on this craggy promontory jutting out into Loch Ewe. He inherited the Gairloch Estate, but in 1862 the 5,000-hectare Inverewe and Kernsary Estates were bought for him and so began a life's work converting a wilderness into the exotic gardens we see today.
Beyond this peninsula we see the continuation Loch Ewe, in which at the time of taking this photograph the military were engaged in a major exercise, hence the naval craft you see. Beyond the ship is the Isle of Ewe, and finally there is the Rubha Mor peninsula on the shores of which are the villages of Aultbea and Mellon Charles.
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.
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.
Gairloch; Gaelic, village named after the loch of the same name, Loch Gairloch, An Gearr-loch, the short loch.
Inverewe; In Gaelic it is Inbhiriu, meaning the ‘mouth of the Ewe’, referring to where the River Ewe enters Loch Ewe.
Isle Ewe; Gaelic is Eilean Iu. See Loch Ewe for further information.
Kernsary; Professor Watson gives a lengthy explanation of the origin of this word by comparing it with another place name Smiorsair. The origin is Norse and Professor Watson goes on the explain that he feels the last part ar, is from erg, a shieling, borrowed from Gaelic. The first part Cearnai’s may be kjarni, kernel, denoting also ‘the best part of the land’; or it may be kjarr, a copse. In the former case the s has to be explained; the latter theory leaves nas to be accounted for.
J H Dixon explains the word as follows; spelt in Gaelic Cearnsair, a corruption, probably from carn, a cairn; airidh, a shieling.
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.”
Mellon Charles; Gaelic is Meallan Thearlaich, Charles’s Little Hill.
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.
Rubha Mor; Listed by Professor Watson as Rudha-mór, ‘the big headland’.
Tollie; Gaelic is Tollaidh, ‘place of the holes’, there are also Tollie Farm, Tollie Bay, Tollie Rock, Tollie Burn and Loch Tollaidh
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