Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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The Branksomk Slogan 21 My Trip Around the North of Scotland Althoug h many people go to Great Britain every summer and tour most of England and southern Scotland, few people venture north of Inverness into some of the finest country in the v hole of the British Isles. On the West Coast of Scotland, particularly, are some of the most mag- nificent and awe-inspiring hills, of which someone once said that Dante must have had them in mind when he wrote his Inferno. This summer I spent a short time motoring through some of that glorious country. The first day was wet and misty and so we were unable to see much on our way from Inverness across to Gairloch on the West Coast. The next morning was as fresih and lovely as you could wish and we left Gairloch in a blaze of sunshine. As we did not have far to go, we were able to make our way in a leisurely fashion — I should say, we had to, as the roads are by no means as wide nor so well paved as the highways of Ontario. That morning we visited about the most perfect specimen left of what nowadays is a place of great interest but what once was almost a place of refuge — one of the preaching caves used by the Free Church after the Disruption of 1843. The entrance to this cave is quite hard to find, but with the assistance of the people living nearby, we found it in the end and it was well worth the trouble. Most of these caves are quite bare, but this particular one at Cove still has its pulpit and a few of the pews. Unfortunately the pulpit has been spoiled iby uneducated trippers who have insisted on carving their names upon it. We spent some time there and took several photographs to remind us of the determination of those people to stand for religious freedom. After we left it we went to another cave near Laide which was still harder

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20 The Branksome: Si ogan SLOGAN STAFF I. Romeyn M. Sinclair J. Morton M. Brown K. Lea D. Macleod M. Clancey B. Williamson B. Brydon The Georgian Bay Dancing blue waters, leaping in play, Long winding channels go off Georgian Bay, While in the green reed-beds the ducks every year. Take refuge from hunters and find safety here. Near them the grey rocks slope down to the lake, Against which the waves in wild weather do break, While back in the forests the trees sway and bend, And pine-cones are scattered with the force of the wind. Under the pine trees the wild creatures play. And search for their food by night or by day, Where soft mosses lie and the blue- berries grow. Wild flowers nod when the mild breezes blow. The sunset ' s a crimson glow in the West, Tinting the white of the cloudlets ' crest. Till the whole world seems to be alight With the rainbow of colours, a won- drous sight! MARY HARRISON, Form I (Clan Ross)

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22 The Branksome Si ogan to find as there were no kind cottagers to guide us on our way, but we succeeded in the end. This one has no pulpit but it still has a wall that was built around the entrance to keep the worshippers safe in times of danger. Next to this cave is a smaller one in which an old woman and her daughter are said to have lived but it has filled up considerably since then so that it is impossible to enter. That night we spent at Ullapool, which is quite a ' large town compared with most of the villages up there. The next day was as glorious as the day before and the morning was very good for photographic purposes although it grew hazy later. From Ullapool to Kylesku there are two roads, one of which goes through the hills and is the better for scenery, and the other by the coast. We wished to visit Achiltibuie, which is right opposite the Summer Isles and so we went by the coast road. After we left Achiltibuie, we caught a last glipipse of the famous Coolin hills in Skye far off in the distance. We joined the main road just past Loch Assynt and made our way to Scourie without any further hap- pening. The inn there was filled with fishermen and the walls were covered with models of some of their trophies. The next day, one of the ghilHes took us to see the Worship Stones at Eddrachillis, a circular wall of stones with one large one as the pulpit, used, as were the preaching caves, by the Free Church. He also showed us where the Covenanters are supposed to have held Communion. He was not very sure of the exact spot and so we had to walk what seemed like several miles over boggy heather. The point farthest north which we touched was Durness, which we reached that morning. Nearly every- where we went there seemed to be an hotel which had been burned down and Durness was no exception. We stopped there to fill up with petrol and learned that the hotel had been burned twenty years before. Near here is a ruined chapel which was built in 1619. In the chapel itself is the grave of someone who died not long after it was built, and outside is the graveyard for the surrounding district in which are buried the people who have died since it was first used for that pur- pose. Rob Doun, a famous Gaelic poet, is buried here.