Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

A wide, eye-level shot captures a rugged coastline meeting a vast, deep blue ocean under a clear, bright blue sky. The foreground is dominated by dark, jagged rocks and cliffs, some with patches of green vegetation and light-coloured lichen. White foamy waves crash against the base of these rocky formations, creating a dynamic contrast between the dark land and the churning water. The ocean stretches out towards the horizon, its surface marked by streaks of white where waves have broken. In the distance, a few hazy landmasses are visible on the horizon line, appearing as low, dark shapes against the lighter sky. To the left, further inland, gently sloping hills or small mountains rise up, their peaks a lighter shade under the sunlight. The overall impression is one of a wild, untamed coastal landscape on a clear, sunny day.

Taigh a’ Bheannaich

Scotland’s peninsulas tend to be windswept, remote, and stubbornly overlooked. Àird Uig is no exception. At its northern tip sits the headland of An Gallan Uigeach, its western cliffs taking the full brunt of the Atlantic.

This was the daily view for a handful of Irish monks who, sometime after the mid-sixth century and before the Vikings came calling, chose this place to test their faith through hardship and isolation. Their lives were a kind of living martyrdom, endured on a barren edge of the known world.

An eye-level, wide shot shows a somewhat barren, rocky landscape dotted with patches of green grass and two small, still pools of dark blue water under a clear, bright blue sky. The foreground features uneven terrain with exposed light-coloured rocks and areas of short, green grass. A shallow, dry streambed winds through this area. Before and to the left of the pools, a ruined medieval chapel sits on a small knoll. Further back, the two small, circular pools of water reflect the clear sky. Around the pools, the landscape is rockier. In the far distance, a strip of deep blue ocean meets the horizon under the expansive blue sky. The overall scene conveys a sense of remote, windswept moorland on a sunny day.
Taigh a’ Bheannaich.

Near a small loch, on a cliffside promontory, lie the ruins of a drystone chapel named “Taigh a’ Bheannaich”—the Blessing House. Around it, they say, are the faint traces of ten to twelve hut-like dwellings, each barely a few metres wide. I say “they say” because the remains are elusive, and time has not been kind. Still, there are worse ways to spend half an hour than squinting at stones, wondering if these ones or those were once someone’s shelter1Canmore ID 4030 Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/40302Canmore ID 4026 Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/4026.

The chapel itself is easier to spot. Rectangular, several stones high, it clings to a flat rocky knoll, hemmed in by dried-up streams and lochans. It has faced the Atlantic for nearly 1,400 years. One wonders what faith it took to build it here—and what silence must have followed.

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