Suilven in Assynt
This 2018 picture of Suilven is taken from the track to Garvie Bay. In fact there is no track to Garvie Bay – just tussocks, following a small river with a little lochan. This makes for pretty tough, albeit flat, walking. Suliven is 731m/2398ft. It is composed of Torridian sandstone. This is its south-facing elevation, which gives no clue as to its razor-back profile along its length, as the books say. It is a most impressive mountain, which imprints itself on the mind with its pudding-shaped peak.
High up on Suilven by Norman MacCaig
Published in ‘The Poems of Norman MacCaig’ edited by Ewen MacCaig
Gulfs of blue air, two lochs like spectacles,
A frog (this height) and Harris in the sky -
There are more reasons for hills
Than being steep and reaching only high.
Meeting the cliff face, the American wind
Stands up on end: chute going the wrong way.
Nine ravens play with it and
Go up and down its lift half the long day.
Reasons for them? the hill's one ... A web like this
Has a thread that goes beyond the possible;
The old spider outside space
Runs down it - and where's raven? Or where's hill?
Rectory Ramblings 