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Friends of mine, Brian and Aida operate a pleasure boat business from Ullapool and I had been asked to do some photography to promote their business. Since the main destination to take the fare paying passengers to would be the Summer Isles we planned for a day out amongst the islands.
Commissions such as this are extremely enjoyable and when we reached the islands Brian pulled up to one of the uninhabited islands where there was a convenient rock shelf. Aida and I disembarked with the equipment. We were amongst a group of small islands and the plan was to direct Brian when and where to do some fast turns. Brian's 12 seater boat is extremely powerful and can reach a top speed of around 50 knots.
We had brought along mobile phones to direct Brian while we were on the island, but to our dismay we discovered there was no mobile phone signal out there and we had to resort to arm waving and shouting! However we managed to get the work done as shown by one of the shots shown below.
In the late afternoon I took a view (Summer Isles Vista shown at the top of this page) from the island we were on, Eilean Fada Mor, looking back to Annat Bay. The foreground peninsula is part of Tanera Beg beyond which is the silhouette of Eilean Dubh.
In the distance is the mainland, the left hand side of which is dominated by the peaks of An Teallach, and on the right is Bean Dearg and the other peaks of the 'Great Wilderness'. It was late in the day when we finished and I enjoyed a final moonlit trip across Gruinard Bay to Laide Jetty where I disembarked for the drive home. It was a memorable day.
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.
Annat; Gaelic; an Annait, ‘the mother church’. Annat Bay in Gaelic is Linne na-h-Annait or am Polla Mór. Annat graveyard is Cladh na-h-Annait.
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.
Eilean Dubh; The dark island.
Eilean Fada Mór; One of the Summer Isles. I could find no direct reference to this name but as Fada is ‘long’ in Gaelic I have translated it as the ‘big long island’.
Gruinard Bay; possibly from the Norse grunnfjörðr meaning shallow firth.
Laide; In Gaelic it is An Leathad meaning ‘a slope’.
Summer Isles; A collective name for a scattered group of islands lying close to the North-west coast of Scotland just north of Ullapool. From the Gaelic na h-Eileanan Samhraidh meaning ‘summer isles’.
Tanera Beg; Gaelic Tannara Beag; Norse h.fnar-ey with the usual prefixed t, meaning ‘ Small Harbour Isle.
Ullapool; Gaelic is Ullabul derived from the Norse Ulli-bólstaðr meaning ‘Ulli’s stead’.
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