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luzulaWell, 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 forregshoe, 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.
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.
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Date: 2022-06-29 04:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-30 07:06 pm (UTC)