The Lost Community of Loch Torridon

The rocky point on the north shore of the kyle between Upper Loch Torridon and Loch Shieldaig is called Rubha na h-Airde Glaise (point of the grey height). It has a small flat area right on the edge, formed from glaciated slabs with a skin of turf. Here there was a community; the walls of several houses are visible and a larger enclosure which may have been either a small animal enclosure or a larger building.

I've been told that it may have been a fishing station, and I've also read that there may have been a Inn here.




On the pebble beach, a boat "noust" has been made from large boulders. It must have taken quite an effort to make, as I'm sure some of the boulders will have been washed away in stormy weather. This community was clearly a going concern, but like so many up and down this coast is now just an echo in a "ruckle o' stanes".




This ruin is on a slab right on the very tip of the point. It has a wide view out to sea, and up Loch Torridon, but must have been a windy place to live.

I'm always intrigued by these visible marks of past lives; who were the people who lived, laughed loved and died here? How did they come to be living on this exposed point, was it by choice or necessity? So many questions from a few old walls.

Some of the information about this place was kindly provided by Steve Carter, who runs a website about Torridon and Shieldaig with loads of information and some stunning photographs.

Having contemplated times past, it was time to move on; out into Loch Torridon proper and the next community.