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 IllustrationsDixon, John H. (John Henry)
History
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
Dixon, John H. (John Henry)
Gairloch (Scotland) -- Guidebooks; Gairloch (Scotland) -- History; Ross and Cromarty (Scotland) -- History
These tourists, who thus professed to have "seen Loch Maree," were a
fair type of too many of those who rush through Gairloch, as if their
sole object were to cover the most ground in the shortest possible time,
and who thus fail to obtain any true perception of the belongings of the
country, even of the scenery.
There are first-rate hotels within the parish, and lodgings may
frequently be hired, or a furnished house taken. The hotels offer the
inducement of lower terms to those whose visits exceed the usually brief
period.
Impressions of scenery are fixed by repetition; insight into nature is
deepened by observation; and knowledge of a country is vastly more
valuable if it include some acquaintance with the population, their
characters, condition, and means of livelihood. Too many visitors
overlook their opportunities in these directions.
Some remarks are necessary with regard to the traditions of Gairloch,
contained mostly in Part I. In recent times there has been a tendency to
discredit all such traditions, and to treat them as symbolic or didactic
legends, or as localisations (with extra colouring) of myths common to
the heroic period of every country. The principal features of one or two
of the Gairloch traditions are certainly to be found in stories of other
parts of the Highlands, and occasionally, but rarely, a resemblance may
even be traced to the plot of some ancient European myth. On the other
hand, it is to be noted that the Highland bards, down to the present
time, have regularly transmitted their stories in precisely the same
language from one trained memory to another, so that even the very words
put into the mouths of the _dramatis personæ_ have been insisted upon in
every transmission. Another point to be noticed is, that except in two
instances the Gairloch traditions do not date further back than four
centuries. In the older legends referred to, visible evidences, such as
the tombstones in Isle Maree and the cave at Ardlair, may perhaps be
considered confirmatory. For my own part, I am disposed to accept all
the traditions as generally worthy of credence. Much interest in the
locality is gained by doing this, and certainly nothing is lost!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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