Image Details
Limited Edition Print
I suppose most people would think of the landscape photographer endlessly hunting the landscape for combinations of light and land to make beautiful images. Waiting interminably in some spot for that moment when a ray of light, or perhaps a shadow, will transform a scene into something breathtaking.
This is certainly true some of the time. On other occasions images just suddenly arrive fully formed and you have to be ready for them. This image arrived just when I had sat down to enjoy the dinner my wife had cooked for us.
We usually have our meals in the kitchen and where I sit at the table I can look across Gruinard Bay to An Teallach. I could see this delightful scene with the late evening light playing on the hills and mountains which were wreathed by horizontal bands of wispy clouds.
My natural reaction of course was to dash off and capture some images, but on the other hand Isabel had just cooked a fine meal and I could not run off and abandon it. The solution of course was to enjoy the meal more quickly than usual, then dash off!
The equipment was sitting ready for use at the back door, I grabbed it, ran to the car and drove about 500 metres to the spot on the Mellon Udrigle road that would be an ideal viewpoint. I couldn't work quick enough because I could see the light was changing as the sun dropped down to the horizon behind me. I managed to get some shots of the wider view captured before finally zooming in on this portion of the scene.
The two houses in this view, utterly dwarfed by the mountainous backdrop, have always been very appealing to my eye and often end up in my photographs. The houses are situated in a small hamlet called Second Coast.
Beyond Second Coast looms the massive multi-peaked An Teallach, one of Scotland's greatest mountains which offers a fine exposed ridge walk, but not for the faint hearted. Having no head for heights I must be counted amongst the faint hearted. Fortunately, having a faint heart in no way spoils my enjoyment of the splendour of the scene. Within a minute of this shot being taken the light which had so enlivened the scene had faded.
I went home to wash the dishes.
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.
An Teallach; Gaelic, ‘The Forge’, according to Wikipedia from its colour in certain lighting rather than its shape. From personal experience I can agree with this explanation. In the summer, during a good sunset, and when looking east over Gruinard Bay An Teallach can appear bright red with the reflected light from the sunset in the west. However Professor Watson says that the being called the forge is due either to its smoke like mists or from supposed resemblance to a forge.
Gruinard Bay; possibly from the Norse grunnfjörðr meaning shallow firth.
Mellon Udrigle; A hybrid Gaelic/Norse name meaning ‘Udrigle's Hill’. Udrigle is possibly a Norse name, however Professor Watson suggests it may be derived from the Norse útargill, meaning outer cleft or gully.
Second Coast; Professor Watson gives two Gaelic names for this place - an t-Eirthire and an t-Eirthire shios which translate as ‘the brown shore’ or ‘on the shore side’ respectively.
The village next to Second Coast is called First Coast. I was told that the place names ‘First Coast’ and ‘Second Coast’ arose as a result of ‘confusion’ on the part of Ordnance Survey when they first mapped this area, which may be true, but I have found no evidence to support this. Given that the Gaelic names for both places (as per Watson) contain the Gaelic word for ‘coast’ (Eirthire) it is not unreasonable to assume that informal local names for these two adjacent villages would be First and Second Coast, but in Gaelic obviously.
Images; Copyright © Gordon C Harrison All Rights Reserved. No reproduction without permission.
Moral rights asserted in all countries and under any acts that may require such assertion.