The white sands of Morar + the Isle of Rum

[luzula]

Well, I can see why Broster chose to set the ending of Flight of the Heron at Morar! It is a very beautiful and distinctive place, and I can almost see her visiting it and seeing that ending in a flash...well, I guess I'll never know. But she must have visited it, I think.

We decided to come the way Keith would have come, south from Arisaig, so we walked from Morar on the road B8008 that goes round the headland, and came out on the beach north of the rock spur Rubh'an Achaidh Mhòir, see map below.


We had to leave the beach after a while and walk over some more rocky ground, but Keith could have managed that with his horse. But then we came to this:


and had to clamber pretty high up to get past it, on rough, craggy rocks that Keith could in no way have ridden on. Hmmm. Of course it's always possible that the tide was lower than when we came (we might not have hit absolute low tide) and that he could have ridden past that craggy spur of rock that juts out into the sea. The water isn't deep. But there could not have been a "rough, sandy track" there, because the water at high tide would wash any such thing away. So I can only conclude that Broster changed the geography a little to allow Keith to ride round the headland on the beach. Which is fine by me!

We sat on the beach and read that last chapter aloud and got tears in our eyes. ♥ Here is one place where it could have happened:


And here is the mouth of the river from Loch Morar, which will be swallowed at high tide:


Next up, our trip to the Isle of Rum:

FotH: "The fantastic peaks of Rum were even more unreal in the moonlight than in the day, and the isle of Eigg of an even odder shape."

At Rum we actually got some rain and some midges! But not very much of either, we have really been lucky during the whole trip. Alas for regshoe, we did not see any eagles, though both of us were very happy to see the Manx shearwater, a rare sea bird of which a third of the world population lives on Rum. They only go in to their burrows on land at night, but we saw a lot of them from the ferry: very graceful birds who skim along the surface of the waves. I also saw my first gannets!


The white sands of Morar are visible from far out. Ewen would have seen that sight...


The heron graced us with its presence again! There were two of them, and we saw them a lot. <3


Some scenery on Rum.

Though it was raining, we went on the morning of the last day to look at some old shielings, but did not find them. This was because the terrain was difficult and full of purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea, also common on the west coast of Sweden) which forms tussocks, and when you make a step, it's hard to tell whether you will step on a tussock or on a wet, boggy hollow inbetween. I daresay that when this actually was a pasture, the cattle kept the grass shorter, and there was probably a path to the shielings.

And now we have left Scotland! Sadness! : (( Though there is more trip to come, and I will have the memories.

Comments

[garonne]

So lovely to see your photos! And I'm so glad you had such good weather.

Regarding the geography of the shoreline, I guess this has probably changed a lot since the 1740s anyway, with erosion and/or accretion and the significant rise in sea levels since then. Maybe low tide was in quite a different place, further out?

I was thinking broadly about this just a few days ago, because I was thinking about fic I've written that couldn't take place in 2022 because of climate change. A Sherlock Holmes fic set in the Alpes on a glacier which has receded 2.5 km since then, a 1960s Man from UNCLE fic set under an ice sheet that no longer forms in winter... But the most heart-breaking is what's happening in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.

[regshoe]

Huh, that's a good point about probable change in the shoreline since the 1740s! I suppose it's possible there's even been significant change since the 1920s when Broster must have visited.

[luzula]

Just commenting here as well so you will also see it: I just realized that there is the rebound since the ice age which means that the land is still rising about 10 cm per century in Scotland. So that means it's 25-30 cm higher since 1746...

[garonne]

Haha, so in the opposite direction from what I assumed. I would not have guessed that! (And also in the opposition direction from the one that would be needed for Keith to get around that rocky outcrop more easily in 1746... :( )

[luzula]

Huh, it just occurred to me to check the 1750:s Roy map, and this is what it shows. Does not look like there's a path round the headland, if those dotted lines are the shore at low tide...

[regshoe]

Good thinking! No, that doesn't look very plausible—I suppose a certain amount of artistic licence can be allowed. :)

[luzula]

It just occurred to me to check the 1750:s Roy map, and this is what it shows. Does not look like there's a path round the headland, if those dotted lines are the shore at low tide...

[luzula]

Hmm, yes, I suppose that is possible. Since the shoreline is sand, it could definitely have shifted since then. But as an opposite effect from sea level rise, there is the rebound since the ice age which means that the land is still rising about 10 cm per century in Scotland. So that's 25-30 cm higher since 1746...

Oh, that's chilling, with the climate change making fics impossible...

[osprey_archer]

Oh, that beach is beautiful. Yes, I could absolutely see Broster standing there looking at the white sand and seeing the whole ending in a flash.

[luzula]

It was very beautiful! Not even the occasionally obnoxious tourists who were not there for FotH reasons could ruin it for us.

[isis]

Lovely beach photos! The sky is different in every photo, looks like the weather changed a lot. And thanks for adding the map detail, that's interesting.

[luzula]

It did change a lot, between sunshine and rain, back and forth several times! Typical Highland weather, I suppose. : )

Fabulous photos, packed with canon detail.

[jesse_the_k]

From sled dogs to bird watching, you bring delight to every fandom!

Re: Fabulous photos, packed with canon detail.

[luzula]

Awww, thanks! <3

[seascribble]

That is a very nice beach indeed.

[luzula]

It is! And much more emotionally meaningful when you know what happened on it in Flight of the Heron... : )

[nnozomi]

We sat on the beach and read that last chapter aloud and got tears in our eyes. ♥
What a lovely experience.

(And thank you for the wonderful pictures and their cooling effect!)

[luzula]

It was! There's nothing quite like being with someone who understands your fannish feelings... ♥

[feroxargentea]

Re: that little headland, it looks quite small. Bearing in mind that a single bad storm can wash away half a sandy beach or alter the course of a river through its sandbanks (and that west-facing coasts get battered the most by the prevailing winds), I'm guessing there could well have been a clear pathway round the headland at some point. I wonder if any of the locals whose grandparents once walked their dogs along the beach would know...

[luzula]

Well, that's a good point!

Huh, it just occurred to me to check the 1750:s Roy map, and this is what it shows. Does not look like there's a path round the headland, if those dotted lines are the shore at low tide...but I'm okay with that, since it suits that plot. : )

[hyarrowen]

Hm, I thought I'd found the rough, sandy track running along the south side of the bay, just above the thin woodland. But we were driving for the most part, so I couldn't follow his route exactly. Maybe it was different in Broster's day, too?

I'm sure she visited the place. It's so easy to get to, there was the Station Hotel there, and once seen, you can't help but think, "This is a great setting for a devastating last chapter of a novel."

[luzula]

Yes, we also saw a track running along the south side of the bay! But the problem is that if you come riding along the beach from Arisaig (Keith was clearly on the beach before he turned into the bay, or at least I read it that way) then you can't just ride along the beach into the bay, because of the big spur of rock running out.

I suppose she took the same railroad we did to get there! Or actually we took the bus, but we took the train back again.

[hyarrowen]

That trip - the Road to the Isles, I mean - is just so pretty. As for the track, I couldn't walk the whole thing, though I believe I got out at the point and fossicked around. (I was driving alone in Britain for the first time and freaking out a bit. I can cope with kangaroos, wombats and road trains, but not the British traffic, except in the west of Scotland.)

[luzula]

Even if I had had a driving licence, I would not dare to drive in Britain! But of course, for me there would have been the issue of driving on the other side of the road. The bus drivers in the Great Glen were quite scary...

And yes, it's a very pretty stretch of road out to the Isles.

[sanguinity]

I'm so glad you did a ceremonial reading at Morar.

And yes, those white beaches there are very visible -- you can see them clearly on satellite view, too! Do we know what makes all that white sand, there on that tiny stretch of coastline and apparently nowhere else?

[luzula]

Yes, it did feel a little like a ceremony one did at the end of a pilgrimage...

A brief search does not turn up anything on why the beaches are white, I suppose any serious geology text is drowned out by the tourism stuff. Hmm.