Undiscovered Scotland

 

"Under the Radiant Hill: Life and the Land in the Remotest Highlands" by Robin Noble can be thought of as an extended love-letter to one of the most beautiful and fascinating parts of this amazing country of ours. Visitors to the far north-west of Scotland will certainly have been to Assynt, though perhaps without knowing it. Assynt is the name given to the parish whose four corners are Elphin, on the main road north; Inverkirkaig, on the coast south of Lochinver; the Point of Stoer; and Kylesku, home since 1984 to one of the world's most beautiful bridges. The population of the parish amounts to around a thousand people, of whom about 40% live in Lochinver.

Robin Noble first came to Assynt in July 1959 when, as a nine-year-old, his parents brought him on the first of many family holidays spend in a cottage at Glenleraig on the parish's north-facing coast. He has spent a great deal of time in Assynt ever since, as a resident and a visitor. What we read here is the story of his interactions with this glorious place and it is a book that should be read by anyone who loves the (relatively) wilder places of Scotland or who intends to travel to or through the area.

The author sets the scene in his introduction: "{Assynt} shaped my world view, and subtly dictated the course of my life, with all its ups and downs. Long acquaintance with it and thoughtful study of it, in time revealed something of its geological, archaeological and historical significance: ecological lessons were learnt which are of relevance at least to the wider Highlands and, sometimes, far beyond."

This is a lovely book and if there were an award for "best title of a non-fiction book" it would surely be in the running. The origin of the title is explained in an author's note near the beginning of the book. "The fine mountain of Quinag has three miles of western cliffs... At times, the rays of the setting sun light up those cliffs, and the mountain glows in a dramatic way... Under this radiant hill is a long, dark glen, and in that glen is a cottage; whatever it is that I am, that cottage and the folk around it made me."