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Following heavy snowfalls the first fortnight in January 2010 was one of intense cold, never rising above 0°C. For that entire fortnight I was unable to use my car, the road from my home was closed with snow which eventually became compacted and turned into solid ice.
The local authority snow plow was unable to access my road, the start of which is a steep hill that was simply impossible for any vehicle to climb due to the hard compacted ice. My neighbours and I reverted back to pre-car days for a fortnight and walked everywhere we needed to go. Fortunately we have one small shop/post office located on the main road and the main road was still passable to traffic with care. So we didn't starve, and we became fitter!
On some days we had brilliant sunshine as the above photo shows. This was taken from Sand Passage and is looking roughly west over Gruinard Bay to the village of Laide, a scattered community stretched along the hill on the horizon. My own home is on that hill in the middle of this photo. There was not much sunshine time left when this was taken. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was low in the sky as you can see from the shadows and was soon to drop behind the hills to my left.
North-west Highland Place NamesThe 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.
Gruinard Bay; possibly from the Norse grunnfjörðr meaning shallow firth.
Laide; In Gaelic it is An Leathad meaning ‘a slope’.
Sand; At Laide, in Gaelic it is Sannda from the Norse sand-à meaning ‘sand stream’, as is proved by the presence of Inbhir-Shannda, ‘estuary of the Sand Burn’. The burial place is called Cladh Inbhirshannda from the Gaelic cladh, ‘burial place’.
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