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

The Return Voyage.

Our notes will now describe the right or south-west side of the loch, and also the islands which add so much to the beauty and romance of Loch Maree.

Observe, as the Mabel gets under way, the slopes and undercliffs of Meall a Ghuibhais, clothed with extremely beautiful woods. They consist for the most part of birch and pine raised by nature, and therefore more picturesque than if planted by man. The oak, the ash, the rowan, the sallow, the hazel, and the quivering aspen, are mingled with the firs and birches, and are all indigenous. Black game and roe-deer abound in these woods, and may often be observed near the margin of the loch. Above the woods are rocky heights; in one place a yellow scar is noticeable, where a landslip occurred many years ago, illustrating the effect of water and frost in disintegrating the hardest rocks.

The woods of Glas Leitire, as this fragment of the old forest is named, extend along some two miles of our return route. As they become thinner, individual trees display their characteristic shapes more freely (see Her Majesty Queen Victoria's remark about these trees quoted in [Part IV., chap. iv.]).

The county road towards Gairloch, also described in that chapter, runs along the side of the loch we are now noticing. It may be seen here and there winding through the trees, or surmounting some rocky point on the edge of the loch.

After passing the Glas Leitire woods, Glen Grudidh opens out; the transition from the lovely woods to this wild lonely glen is indeed a transformation scene! The view looking up Glen Grudidh is one of the finest in the country; the herbage assumes, particularly in autumn, a ruddy golden hue, contrasting wonderfully with the blue-grey boulders scattered upon it, and the steep blue peak of Ruadh Stac—the highest summit in Gairloch parish—and of Liathgach which form the background.

Further on, at a distance of five miles from the head of the loch, is Grudidh Island (Eilean Grudidh), in a small bay renowned for its sea-trout fishing, and where now and then a salmon is hooked. This interesting little island ([Part I., chap, xxi.]) was originally a stronghold of the MacBeaths, and was afterwards held by the Macleods ([Part I., chap. xii.]).

Rounding a promontory, called Aird na h' Eigheamh, or "the calling point," which considerably narrows the loch, we come in sight of the main body of the islands. They are said to be twenty-four in number, but no one can accurately number them. When the loch is high from recent rains many parts become detached from the larger islands, which when it lowers again are reunited. The principal islands are Isle Maree, Eilean Suainne ("the everlasting island"), Eilean Dubh na Sroine ("the black isle of the nose or promontory"), Garbh Eilean ("the rough isle"), and Eilean Ruaridh Mor ("the big island of Rory"), with its pendicle Eilean Ruaridh Beag. Another considerable island is called "the planted island." These islands are part of the Gairloch estate of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie; they are the resort of red deer, which swim across from the mainland; and of black game, sea-gulls, and wild fowl, as well as occasionally of roe-deer. In a hard winter wild swans repair to Loch Maree (which is never frozen over), and frequent the islands. A specimen may be seen in the Loch Maree Hotel. Wild geese (the grey lag goose), wild ducks, mergansers, goosanders, black-throated divers, and countless sea-gulls, visit the islands during May and the following months for the purpose of nesting and rearing their young. The sea-gulls are of four kinds, viz., the great black-backed gull (two or three pairs), the lesser black-backed gull (in great numbers), the herring gull (very few), and the common or winter gull (a few pairs).

The islands are for the most part beautifully wooded,—some of the trees being the remains of the ancient forest, which their insular position protected from the axe of the ironworkers; others self-sown in recent years; and others again planted by the lairds of Gairloch, to whom all the islands have for four centuries belonged. It is pleasant to notice young trees springing up along the north-east shore of the loch, no doubt the result of seed blown from the islands.

Isle Maree is the best known and most interesting of the islands ([Part I., chap. ii.]; and [Part II., chaps. xi.] and [xii.]).