Gairloch in North-West Ross-Shire / Its Records, Traditions, Inhabitants, and Natural History, with a Guide to Gairloch and Loch Maree, and a Map and Illustrations

by John H. Dixon

CLACH A MHAIL, ARDLAIR.

From the Fox Point to a burn a mile further up, the estate of Mr Osgood H. Mackenzie abuts on the loch; then commences the property of Mrs Liot Bankes. The scrubby wood on the hill side sloping to the loch is called An Fhridh dhorch, or "the dark forest." The sheep have been removed from this ground, so the wood here will now have a chance of growing. As the steamer emerges from the comparatively narrow part of Loch Maree the new mansion-house of Ardlair (Mrs Liot Bankes) comes in view, situated in natural pleasure grounds of peculiar beauty. The charms of this place, embracing sloping lawns, shady glades, dense thickets, graceful trees, masses of grey rock, and a shingly beach, edged by a belt of feathery wood, the whole reposing at the foot of magnificent precipices, seem to constitute a sort of garden of the Hesperides, and fully justify the title bestowed on the spot by a Scotch poet, who truly called it "the sweet Ardlair." The name Ardlair signifies "the mare's height." It is derived from a stone, rather like a horse's head, which stands in the loch a few yards to the south of the pier below the house.

A little past the cultivated land, to the east of the house of Ardlair, is the "Cave of the king's son" ([Part I., chap. iv.]); near it is the stone still called the "Minister's stone" (see [illustration, page 81]), where tradition has it that the Rev. Farquhar MacRae ([Appendix A]) used to preach.

UAMH A MHAIL, ARDLAIR.

Beyond the woods of Ardlair may be seen a large boulder on the beach, called Clach a Mhail, or "the stone of rent or tribute" (see [illustration]), at which the proprietor of the Letterewe estate used to gather his rents, and where a whisky market used to be held. A small cave a little above, called Uamh a Mhail (see [illustration]), was used by the proprietor if the weather were too stormy for his business to be conducted at the stone. Further on is a long bluish-looking point called Rudha Chailleach, or "the old woman's (or witch's) point," where it is supposed women accused of witchcraft used to be ducked, or more probably drowned.

On the side of Beinn Aridh Charr, about half way up above Rudha Chailleach, is a conspicuous mass of quartz, called the "White horse." Its shape justifies the name.

Our notes on the islands, among which the steamer passes when opposite Rudha Chailleach, shall be deferred until the return journey.

An enormous rock, or rather lump of rocks, on the southern shoulder of Beinn Aridh Charr rises (just beyond Rudha Chailleach) to the height of 1000 feet. It consists of a number of large rounded masses of stone descending sheer into the waters of the loch, and is called Craig Thairbh, or the "Bull Rock," from a detached stone in the water at the base of the rock supposed to resemble in shape a bull. After passing the Bull Rock the shores of the loch are more or less wooded for a distance of some four or five miles.