SKYE : THE FAR NORTH

SEPTEMBER 6, 2024

                                                           THE VIEW OUT OF OUR COTTAGE WINDOW, WHERE WE HUNKERED DOWN FOR TWO DAYS OF RAIN. THIS SUNSET SIGNALED THAT IT WAS TIME TO JOURNEY OUT INTO ANOTHER FAR REACH OF SKYE

This week I would like to show you several images from the far North of the Isle of Skye. I will concentrate on how you can endeavor to illustrate your feelings about a place by emphasizing just a few aspects of the surroundings. The idea is to de-emphasize documentation by focusing on images that are truly your own.

We journeyed North on the Trotternish Peninsula to delve further into wild Skye without necessarily hiking about. I was till feeling peckish after my bout of sickness, and we wanted to go far enough afield that a simple ride into the far country would suffice to satisfy our sense of adventure.

 

                THE MAIN COTTAGE AT THE MUSEUM OF ISLAND LIFE IN THE FAR NORTH OF SKYE

Our official excuse was to visit Skye’s Museum of Island Life, located about 22 miles North of our cottage in the middle of nowhere. The trip took most of an hour, par for the course on Skye, with Fran once again showing off her skill in negotiating the single track roads which made up the majority of the route.

The museum was well worth the trip, a travel back in time to when the region and the whole island was simply another world compared to mainland Scotland much less Great Britain as a whole. The museum is a reproduction of a “typical” crofting settlement with several stone and thatched roof cottages, each exhibiting a different aspect of island life. Some of the cottages were actually the houses that were part of the original settlement. The main house constituted two rooms which housed a family of two parents and twelve children.

What was really incredible was that we were journeying to Pre-war Skye - but not before the Napoleonic Wars, but rather World War Two. The cottage  contained a wireless radio, which meant that we were glimpsing island life from the early Twentieth Century.

 

                                                                  THE SMALL SCATTERING OF CROFT FARMS AROUND THE MUSEUM

My feelings of isolation were profound, and that became the theme of these images. Of course the surrounding landscapes were beautiful and wild, but I was moved by an encounter with what seemed like the end of the world. In every direction surrounding the museum I was reminded that there really was nothing anywhere near here, and that human history had not made much of a dent in the area for a very long time.

 

                IN ONE DIRECTION, FARMLAND AND THE SEA. IN THE DISTANT IS ANOTHER PART OF SKYE.

There was still just a scattering of croft farms in the area, and the cemetery nearby contained graves from several hundred years of the families that had lived their lives within shouting distance.  Beyond the farms there was only a very isolated shoreline and cliffs which seemed to keep the rest of the world a distant memory.

 

                THE SHORELINE - NO HOUSES, NO BOATS, AND CLIFFS TO EMPHASIZE THE POINT.

 

                THESE CLIFFS ARE JUST A PRELUDE TO THE MAIN QUIRAING RIDGE BEYOND.

 

                A VERY WIDE PANORAMA REVEALS ONLY ONE SMALL ROCK IN THE BAY

 

                A BREAK IN THE CLOUDS PROVIDES A GLIMMER OF LIGHT ON THE SEA

But above all there was the overwhelming presence of the sea. Skye is quite a large island, but it is still an island, and there are very few parts of the island where the sea is not part of the environment. Here in the far North the sea both cut off the rest of the world and made the little piece of shoreline seem completely insignificant. The distant pieces of land that we could see across the water did not hide the fact that the entire Atlantic Ocean laid beyond those rocks.

                OVERWHELMING BEAUTY : THE SEA, THE LIGHT AND THE SKY

I captured many images of the sea while we were there, but the ones I show here were my efforts to play up that sense of isolation. While I usually enjoy focusing on small snippets of the environment, this area led me to try to show the extent of the view.

                AT THE LOSS OF SOME SKY, THE PANORAMA CROP EMPHASIZES THE BREADTH OF THE VIEW

The compositions are very minimal, with lots of what photographers call negative space - parts of the composition where there is not much to focus on. A small piece of distant land, a brief glimpse of sunlight, and a sky full of threatening clouds, is all I felt was necessary.

                MONOCHROMATIC BLACK AND WHITE VERSION FURTHER HIGHLIGHTS THE TONAL RANGE OF THE IMAGE

I found that cropping to a panorama emphasized the wide extent of the view. Since the color images were in fact mostly a monochromatic blue, I then experimented with black and white, which allowed me to further up the contrast beyond what was acceptable in the color versions. I hope you feel my sense of isolation in these images of a beautiful but very lonely landscape.