COUNTRY DIARY ARDNAMURCHAN

West Highlands, Scotland, UK

Mary Montague

As the ferry returns us to Corran, my gaze lingers over Loch Linnhe’s glassy surface. “These peninsulas take the water between thumb and finger / like women feeling for the smoothness of yard-goods,” wrote Elizabeth Bishop in her poem The Map. While she didn’t mean precisely here, between the water’s sheen and my revised grasp of local geography, I can see exactly what she meant. This is our second attempt to get to Ardnamurchan lighthouse, which stands on the most westerly point of mainland Britain. Our first had been from the head of Loch Eil, where its marine waters are finally exhausted by the mountains’ rise. We’d turned off the main road. Fourteen kilometres of single-track brought us to the inflection point that reveals Loch Eil to be a finger’s…

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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 25 October 2024

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