The countryside of Caithness is very similar to that of Orkney,
which those of you with longer memories may remember I visited a year ago. In stark contrast to the wild, rugged
mountains of the north-west Highlands, the north-east corner of the Scottish
mainland boasts wide, gently-sloping and treeless vistas – far views indeed.
The Orkneys lie only a few miles off the north-east coast and can be clearly
seen, though getting there takes time.
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| Orkney ahoy! |
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| Dunnett Head - the most northerly point in mainland Britain |
This is a remote agricultural landscape, which has in the past suffered severe economic depression and hardship and marked depopulation, as can be seen from the many ruined croft houses dotted across the landscape.
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| This was once a family home |
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| This too - a long time ago |
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| A drift of cotton grass |
As one travels back towards the centre of the north coast, the mountains begin to appear again in the distance. Once the familiar outlines of Ben Hope and Ben Loyal can be distinguished, DH and I know that we are getting close to the wonderful landscape where we feel so at home. It’s good to see something different, but only for a day….
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| A lochan - a very small loch - with the Sutherland hills in the background |
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| The Kyle of Tongue with the Rabbit Islands and the Melness peninsula |
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| The cottages of Coldbackie, looking out over the Rabbit Islands |
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| The end of a beautiful day |
Thank you for a wonderful tour - a bleak yet majestic landscape.
ReplyDeleteA very accurate description, Susan. I'm glad you enjoyed it. We find it so beautiful.
DeleteBeautiful photos of a beautiful part of the world.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder how it would be to live there in the more difficult months, how bleak it might be, or whether it would always be beautiful.
Thanks, Jean. We've asked ourselves the same question, as we're only here for weeks rather than months at a time. However we've seen it in most weathers over the years, including deep snow, and it always seems beautiful to us.
DeleteJean, the people look after one another during the "difficult" times... not just the weather. It is something I have always liked in more rural communities... including Yorkshire.
DeleteI once arrived in Lybster, Caithness, late, on Christmas afternoon... Margaret, my opposite-neighbour [her term] called across as I was unloading the car...
"Leave that laddie... your meal is in the oven!"
... and I was hauled across the road and sat down to a fabulous Christmas dinner with all the trimmings!
Totally unexpected...
I ate the Christmas Turkey ready meal that I'd brought with me the next day...
Yep, that's the north of Scotland for you, Tim. A lovely story and I can easily imagine the same happening here. A friend who lives here had her house badly damaged by a water burst after frost and was happily accommodated by neighbours and friends for months until her house was habitable again. Small remote communities still know the meaning of interdependence.
DeleteWe had a burst in our little house in a little town in mid-Wales a few years ago, when we still lived most of the time in Herts.
DeleteWe were alerted by phone late one evening, and told the stop-cock had immediately been turned (the next door neighbour has a key) and when we arrived the next morning he had been clearing up as much as he could by hand, with a mop and bucket. We have lost count the number of times over the 13 years I have had the house that we have dropped off a bottle of wine to one or the other of our Welsh neighbours to thank them for some out-of-the ordinary act of kindness.
We came back from a trip away to a funeral only this April to find that (as the rain had finally stopped here) our next-door-but one neightbour had given our front lawn its first cut to take advantage of a dry spell. The same man gave all his immediate neighbours a home-made Xmas wreath for our front doors and also turned up with a bunch of sweet peas for us last summer.
My neighbours in Witney were of a similar ilk. Even though that is quite a large town now, our street had a real community feel. The only place I never felt any sense of community was Herts, where the London overspill had applied a sort of cheek-by-jowl pressure which had ruined the sense of neighbourliness. There it was all parking disputes and curt good mornings at best, except for one family who were Eastenders originally and much more friendly and outgoing.
Glad you have good weather. Here it has been fabulous too. We have had our first rain for almost a fortnight this morning, but only showery, not very serious. I will still need to water all my pots and newly planted shrubs!
I think there is still far more neighbourliness around than some newspapers would give us credit for. In my experience too it's pressure of numbers and disrupted communities which foster the attitude of keeping myself to myself. In all the places we've lived DH and I have had lovely neighbours: friendly, helpful and genuinely welcoming.
DeleteIt's still dry and warm here, though it's clouding over now and we are promised heavy rain overnight. Can't grumble as it's been lovely since we arrived and we may still see the sun again, once the worst of the rain has passed through.
Gorgeous pictures, Perpetua - and aren't you blessed with the weather! We've had it good back home here, too - although it's set to disimprove rapidly overnight, from the forecast. Saturday went well - although I was the only member of our group there! And en route to Dolgellau, on the way up to the pass from Dinas Mawddwy, the hillsides were not green, but bright mauve-blue - absolutely covered with bluebells. I've never seen anything so spectacularly beautiful - it looked as if there were acres and acres of them. Sadly I didn't have my camera, and as I was on my own I didn't want to stop, anyway. If only this week wasn't so busy I'd drive up there again, with the BH, just to get a few photos. Sigh... they probably won't last until next week.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Helva. The weather has been gorgeous just about everywhere, but ours too is set to go downhill from later tomorrow. Still, given this year's weird weather, I think we should all be thankful for this lovely spell:-)
DeleteI can just imagine how wonderful the carpet of bluebells at Dinas Mawddwy must have looked. That valley is spectacular in any case and with bluebells - wow! They are so late this year, otherwise they'd have been over by last weekend. Sorry you were the only one from our lot. I hope the day was worth the journey.
It was definitely worth it - I've got some 'stuff' for you, and will let you have it next week sometime (then you can see 'my' new vehicle - well, not new exactly, but a lot more recent than the present one, and better for towing the caravan). By the way, I think Friko is opening her garden soon for charity - must try to get over to see it. Will contact her to find the date(s).
DeleteHelva - we did the same route last week and I have the photos to prove it! If it is OK for Perpetua will let me have your e-mail I will send you one or two of the best ones of the carpets of bluebells.
DeleteThank you, Marion (Golden Olden Lady?), I'd love to have them, please. I've been following you for a while, and I think we saw you in LGD a few weeks ago when we were returning from Clywedog Sailing Club. My Better Half used to have a Sunburst Yellow MGBGT years ago, and his No 1 daughter has a red one (never used now - she says she's going to get rid of it!) Of course Perpetua can give you my e-mail - I've been thinking for a while that we ought to meet, as we've got a lot in common - I was a teacher and a singer as well, and I've known Perpetua for about 15 years.
DeleteEmail addresses will be on the way as soon as I've finished answering these comments. In Friko's blog post last Thursday she said her open garden would be in three weeks time which will mean we'll miss it unfortunately. I'd love to have seen it in all its glory.
DeleteLovely images Perpetua - Scotland has been looking beautiful - so green and blue with touches of yellow which your photos clearly show. One evening we were out walking following our supper and the sun was still really warm - everyone we passed commented on how lovely it was and had a smile on their face, not a single midge around which was a bonus.
ReplyDeleteRosemary, the whole of Scotland has been bathed in sunshine recently and of course the colours are then glowingly vivid, especially the gorse. I thought of you when we arrived to such good weather. :-) The absence of midges has been the icing on the cake for us too, though the coming rain will probably see them starting to emerge at last. If only there was some way of controlling them....
DeleteI enjoyed those photographs...wonderful colours.
ReplyDeleteMention of the crofts makes me wonder if you read 'The farm at the back of beyond' blog....no one would believe the way in which tenant farmers in Scotland are being treated to this day, in the true spirit of the clearances.
These colours must have been familiar to you from childhood on, Helen, as they are so totally Scottish and this year so very vivid.
DeleteI've just googled "the farm at the back of beyond" and read some of the posts with mounting horror. There are terrible landlords everywhere, but when it's your livelihood as well as your home, the situation must be intolerable. Root and branch reform is what is needed, but it looks like being a long time coming.
Wonderfully atmospheric pictures Perpetua. I love the starkness of the scenery, but only to view.
ReplyDeleteLiving there, I imagine would be a very different story.
Your photographs are so good and so varied, perhaps you should do an illustrated lecture about your travels using them all, when you return home. (wherever that might be).
Thanks, Ray. I don't think of myself as anything special where photography is concerned, but with scenery and light like this it's hard to go wrong. An interesting idea about a talk, but no thanks. My public speaking days are definitely over, apart from the occasional sermon. :-)
DeleteAs for the starkness of the scenery, it is part of what appeals so much to DH and me about this area and we could easily imagine living permanently here, if it weren't so very far from our family.
I feel the same about public speaking OR solo singing after all those years as a teacher and my oratorio and opera performances. The audiences of today and tomorrow have plenty of much youunger, brighter talents to enjoy. I shall just gently rest on my laurels, thanks!
DeleteTotal agreement - 'snap'. Occasional sermons are the limit now that old age seems to be galloping, rather than creeping, on!
DeleteThese are such beautiful pictures! I love Scotland and can't wait until I can visit again. You live in a very beautiful country!
ReplyDeleteGreat Britain has a huge amount of wonderfully varied scenery for such a small country, Kristie. We feel very lucky to live in two of the most beautiful areas. Glad to have whetted your appetite for your next trip. :-)
DeleteSo beautiful, Perpetua. I so enjoy your pictures. I am especially taken with the rock homes, and the rock walls along the road at the edges of the field. How exciting it would be to ride a horse over those fields,(if I could ride a horse, of course).
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoy them, Bonnie, as I love taking them when there is so much beauty to capture. Stone has been the main building material in the north of Scotland for thousands of years and Caithness has the kind of stone which splits easily into roofing slates, so even the smallest huts were built and roofed with stone.
DeleteStone field walls are common in most of the hilly areas of Britain and were part of the scenery where I grew up in Lancashire. There's a great deal of skill needed to build a durable dry-stone wall.
Wonderful photos, not only the scenery but the photography. Dunnett Head evokes special thoughts as my g.g.grandmother was Ann Dunnett. I feel a special affinity to the north and Orkney.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed them, Shirley. What an interesting link between your family and this remote place. Did your ancestors emigrate from Scotland to Australia? There was a huge amount of emigration from the Highlands in the 18th and 19th centuries as people were cleared off the land by the landowners to make way for sheep.
DeleteHow idyllic your scenes are, Perpetua; the clouds, the green, the blue of the lochan, the ancientness of the cottages. Do you wonder if anyone will live in those croft cottages again? Enjoy your time. It was good to see you had posted so soon, especially with sharing the computer this time.
ReplyDeleteThe colours of Scotland are magnificent at the moment, Penny, as the sky has been so clear and blue recently. Under a cloudy sky the lochan would appear steel-grey. :-) I very much doubt the tiny old croft cottages in my pictures will ever be lived in again. They are so remote and far from modern utilities and people prefer bigger, well-insulated houses nowadays.
DeleteI grabbed my computer time in the evening yesterday, while DH was happily watching a DVD. I have so many photos from this visit and wanted to share some more of them. :-)
What a beautiful place Perpetua, and your photos give a wonderful insight into a remote part of the world. The colours are appealing, the yellow and the deep green, and I love the idea of a Rabbit Island. It is all as lovely as I imagine Scotland to be.
ReplyDeleteScotland is incredibly beautiful, Patricia. You would love it here. At the moment the gorse is in full bloom, hence the swathes of bright yellow. I love the remoteness of this area, the sense of being on the edge between land and sea. As for The Rabbit Islands, as always Wikipedia will tell you something about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_Islands,_Scotland
DeletePerpetua... thank you for another drive down memory lane...
ReplyDeletewe haven't the time to haul all the way back up there... too much to do here... but your postings of this area are always a joy to read, thanks.
Dunnett Head is a superb birdwatching spot... and as I type, our Stemster potatoes [one of Jack Dunnett's Caithness developed specials] are pushing their crowns out of the soil...
On the South coast of Caithness lies Ulbster where, after a short walk you come to an Iron Age hill fort... you can see it here on Google maps... it is the cleared oval in the middle... at the South East corner is a HUGE sheet of Caithness slab set into the wall as a bench where the elders of the community would have sat... probably teaching and minding the children [there is a ring of seat sized stones around it]... it is a wonderful, quiet and historic place to sit on a fine day... as others have for over 5000 years.
There is that wonderful sense of continuity... I get that here, now, when I find a flint tool while digging the potager.
Thought you might like to pay the hill fort a visit when you have space... it isn't going to go away ;-)!! It is a nice walk... but you'll need the 1/2" maps for the path.
You're very welcome, Tim. I thought I might see a comment from you when i mentioned Caithness. :-) I'm not surprised you're busy growing a good Scottish variety of potato. Potatoes are one of the many things we love about being here. They taste so mush better than the ones down south.
DeleteWe didn't have time to visit Dunnett Head this time and didn't have the binoculars with us in any case, but we've enjoyed visiting it in the past and walking on Dunnett Sands too.
We're not familiar with south Caithness, except for driving through it on the A9, so thanks for the suggestion of visiting the hill fort at Ulbster, which I will file for future reference. I got the same sense of continuity when I visited Skara Brae last year, as though I might see the original inhabitants out of the corner of my eye. This is a very ancient landscape.
Thank you Perpetua, for this wonderful tour of the very far north of Scotland in words & pictures. So pleased that the weather has been kind to you - at this time of year & with clear skies, I guess you only have about 3 hours of darkness at night! As I think I've commented here before, Sybille & I have only ever got as far north as Ullapool, so it is nice to have a 'virtual tour' of that part of Scotland that we've never visited. Maybe, one day......
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it, ricky. I think Sybille, with her photographer's eye, would love the light up here, so perhaps one day you may make it north of Ullapool. It's well worth the extra miles.
DeleteTo be honest I'm not sure it gets completely dark at all up here at this time of year. When I went to bed last night at 11.30 the sunset afterglow was still in the sky and by the time I went to the bathroom at 2am the dawn was already breaking in the north-east! White nights indeed!
Stunning countryside Perpetua. It looks so lovely in the sun too. Lucky you to have such beautiful weather for it. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's very different from the mountains in the west, Sarah, which is why it was such fun photographing it. The weather has been a huge bonus after such a cold, grey spring, though I gather we're about to lose it after today. Sigh....
DeleteFabulous photos Perpetua, what a lovely trip to have made, and in such wonderful conditions. It looks as if it has been much better in the north of Scotland than it has been in the south of France. I'm not complaining though, it has meant our spring flowers have lasted longer than usual. I think the weather may have finally turned here...we awoke to blue skies, sunshine...and warmth today. I hope you continue to enjoy your beautiful northern part of your world. jx
ReplyDeleteThanks, Janice. We've certainly been very lucky with the weather in the UK for the past week or so, but it doesn't look like it's going to last much longer. The jet stream appears to be on the move, hence your improving weather and our reversion to rain-bearing westerlies instead of the dry, northerly wind we've been having. Still, it was great while it lasted. :-) I'm sure your unusually cool wet spring is the reason for the gorgeous flowers in your last post. So beautiful!
DeleteWow. Great open spaces and that fabulous green grass that is produced by a long period of sustained rain.... It's beautiful! Have fun, Miss P, and make the most of the sunshine!
ReplyDeleteYep, very different from anything I've posted about before, MM, and a huge contrast to your scenery in Languedoc-Roussillon. :-) One of the many joys of blogging for me is enjoying other people's scenery. The grass is indeed lush and green now, but it's very late coming, as until recently it was too cold over much of the UK for grass to grow properly.The sunshine has given it a real boost and now we're about to get a bit more rain. :-)
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDelete....sigh.... "oh land of my birth, my homeland!" As you admit, the scenery is very photogenic - but you still have to be standing in the right spot and you have certainly done that with these!! (...closes with another sighhhhh..) YAM xx
Thanks, Yam. I hope the photos don't make you TOO homesick. The landscape of Caithness - empty, wide and cool - must certainly be as different from your present surroundings in Mumbai as it's possible to imagine. :-) Now a plea for more of your super photos of your flowers.
Delete...I will seek to oblige! A wee hint - almost every Friday over at MY TAKE there is a 'herbiage' photo, so even if none are posted at Wild YAM you can get a 'fix' there!!
DeleteToo right about the difference in landscapes and then again from OZ also. But I love that one can find beauty everywhere. Just see the Lord and all else pales. YAMxx
Thanks for that, Yam. Have bookmarked and will take a look. You're so right about beauty everywhere. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.....
DeleteI have enjoyed the tour so much, Perpetua! The pictures you took make the country look so magical and special -- but how sad to see the abandoned stone houses... We were with our friends on the Welsh border just in time for the good weather and I must say you have certainly chosen some beautiful countryside to spend your time!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed it, Broad. There is something very special about the landscape of north Scotland, both on the east and the west.
DeleteThe little abandoned houses in Caithness remind me very much of our corner of Normandy, where there are many similar small empty houses and for the same reasons - agricultural depression and depopulation.
The Welsh Marches must have been at their lush and beautiful best in the recent sunshine. We came to Mid-Wales because of work, but never made a better choice. :-)
Glorious photos, Perpetua. The view to Orkney is wonderful, though the sight of the derelict and ruined cottages is rather sad - and - as you say in your comment above, something seen in too many places indicating agricultural depression.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you've had such lovely weather to enjoy too - though my memory of my one holiday in Scotland was being engulfed in a cloud of midges...I'm fatally attractive for them. It does rather spoil things!
Axxx
Thanks, Annie. I imagine there must be numbers of similar derelict houses in remoter parts of rural Spain too. The drift to the cities meant a lot of abandoned homes in the past.
DeleteThe lovely weather came to an end yesterday evening and today is grey, damp and misty on the hills - very Scottish. :-) My being another midge magnet is the reason we normally visit Scotland outside the June to September midge season. Thankfully the long cold spring has delayed the emergence of the midges and we've been blissfully free of them. When in doubt, visit Scotland off-season. :-)
You had lovely weather for your drive. I've followed your photos with a map.
ReplyDeleteLovely clear views of the Orkneys and interesting to see the landscape and ruined crofts and think of the history of the crofters. My parents were very fond of Scotland and often went there with my Aunt and husband. I haven't been there for years (as a teenager with my parents) when we toured with a large camper van, but the experience is still vivid in my mind. I would love to visit any part of Scotland again, but the Highlands would be at the top of the list because of the mountains.
It was great after a somewhat cloudy and cool start over on the east coast. By the time we were driving back west the clouds had broken and the sun was shining again.
DeleteI do hope you manage to visit Scotland again someday. I entirely agree that the Highlands and Islands are the ultimate destination and in summer there are plenty of large camper vans negotiating the single track roads (with passing places) which link the small remote communities up here.
Dear Perpetua, I so enjoy journeying with you as you travel from northeastern Scotland west. So stark and bleak and yet there is a solemnity to the croft homes and the mountains, the shadows and the sway of field grass and flowers. Thank you. Peace.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed travelling along with me, Dee. The starkness and bleakness of the landscape is one of its many beauties for us - as though we're seeing the fine bones of the country as well as its skin of varied and wonderfully coloured vegetation. In these wide views the play of light and shade can be entrancing. The landscapes up here are certainly never boring. :-)
DeleteWonderful photos Perpetua. I'm pleased the weather is being kind and you are able to get out and about and enjoy such beautiful scenery.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ayak. Until today the light has been perfect for photographing the landscape and we've both been making the most of it. Today has been grey and wet, but after almost two weeks with no rain we can't grumble. :-)
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