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Inverness is our main shopping town, a 150 mile round trip, and there are two good things to say about a trip to Inverness. The first of them is the pleasure of spending some time browsing around Leakys, a huge second hand bookshop in Inverness which also stocks a very large range of old maps and prints.
The second good thing is the journey home again which takes one past some excellent scenery. One of those excellent scenes is at Loch Droma just before reaching Braemore junction. I had long enjoyed the vistas over this loch on return journeys from Inverness, much more than the view over Loch Droma one gets on the way to Inverness.
This was the first photograph I ever took of this view. It was early Autumn, the bracken had turned to rust but the trees still displayed a good deal of green, and on a whim I decided to go to Loch Droma hopeful of getting some nice landscape shots. I spent some time exploring the eastern shores of the loch before settling on this viewpoint.
My eye was caught by the stones and rocks breaking the surface near the shore, also the sky, its wonderful wispy clouds and reflection was an absolute delight. The Fannich Hills are on the left, and in the extreme far distance one can make out the faint silhouette of An Teallach, one of the great mountains of Scotland.
About a minute after taking this photograph the smooth surface of the water was disturbed by a breeze, a harbinger of the bad weather which came later, and the reflection was gone.
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.
Braemore; Gaelic am Bràigh’ Mór, ‘the big upper part’.
Fannich; Fannich Hills, named from the loch of that name. Gaelic Fainich the meaning of which is uncertain. Watson has this to say:- In spite of its Gaelic ring Fainaich is rather an obscure and difficult word. Assuming that the ‘f’ is radical and does not represent an aspirated ‘p’ we may compare it with Welsh gwaneg a surge, gwanegu, to rise in waves, Welsh gw corresponding to Gaelic f, as in Welsh gwern, Gaelic fearn, alder. Another step backward would lead us to an early Celtic van- or ven-, which suggests a comparison with the Gaulish Lacus Ven-etus, now Lake of Constance, and the two Gaulish tribes of Veneti, both maritime. But the name is one in which it is unsafe to be positive.
Loch Droma; Gaelic; the Ridge Loch.
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