Arctica Cruising Blog

Hill Names, Long and Short | Click photo to enlarge

Originally uploaded by arctica

A grey, wet morning came as a surprise after ten days of good, dry
weather, but the wind was a steady SE F5, giving us good sailing up past
Stoerhead and across Eddrachillis Bay to Handa, the bird reserve island.
Here the breeze faltered but the weather brightened, and we motorsailed
the rest of the passage to Kinlochbervie, arriving in mid afternoon. We
were only the second visiting yacht at the brand new pontoons in the
outer harbour. Although bright, it stayed cool so the evening stroll was
kept short. Today, in beautiful weather again, we took the Durness -
Lairg bus, the Mate going on to Lairg but the Skipper dropped off at
Kinloch, Loch More to climb the Corbett Meallan Liath Coire Mhic
Dhughaill. This hill has the distinction of the longest hill name in
Scotland, beating runner-up Meallan Odhar Doire nan Gillean by 3
letters. This turned thoughts to the shortest hill names, of which 9
have only 5 letters (An Dun, Arkle, Belig, Eaval, Hecla, Orval, Smean,
Sotan, Tinto) and 26 runners-up have 6 letters. Brevity prevails, it
seems. We hope for a fair forecast for rounding Cape Wrath, but there is
a likelihood of strong to gale force winds overnight.