Chaidh na dealbhan seo a thogail ann an coille an Aoinidh Mhòir anns a’ Mhorbhairne air latha geal grianach an Lùnastal 2020. ’S e àite iongantach a th’ ann; ’s ann mun Aoineadh Mhòr a tha an dàn A’ Chreag Lom Seo le Ciorstaidh A NicDhòmhnaill cuideachd, a chaidh a bhrosnachadh le sgeulachd le Sheila Quillin.

Ann an 1824 chaidh baile an Aoinidh Mhòir fhuadachadh gus caoraich a chur ann, agus mu cheud bhliadhna an dèidh sin, bha na Hiortaich ag obair ann ’s iad nan luchd-obrach choilltearachd. Thàinig am baile am follais a-rithist sna 1990an nuair a chaidh a’ choille a ghearradh. Faodar èisteachd ri facail Màiri Chamshroin, a chaidh a fuadachadh on Aoineadh Mhòr, aig a’ cheangal gu h-ìosal (o Choilltearachd agus Fearann Alba).

These photographs were taken in the woods at Aoineadh Mòr in Morvern on a very bright, sunny day in August 2020. It’s an extraordinary place; Kirsty A Macdonald’s poem This Barren Rock is also about Aoineadh Mòr, inspired by a story from Sheila Quillin.

In 1824 the village of Aoineadh Mòr was cleared to make way for sheep, and around a hundred years later, the St. Kildans worked there as forestry workers. The village was revealed again in the 1990s when the woods were cleared. You can listen to the words of  Mary Cameron, who was cleared from Aoineadh Mòr, at the link below (from Forestry and Land Scotland).

Criomag

Agus chan e rud ùr a th’ ann idir

ach nì as aithne dhut mar-thà

is a chaochladh fhreumhan fod chasan

ag èisteachd ri chèile.

Fragment

And you find it’s not new after all

but a thing you already recognise,

its different roots below your feet

listening to each other.