land and people - Hebrides2

Being a tourist for a bit, I visited the 'Fairy Pools' at Allt Coir a' Mhadaidh, under the Cuillin Ridge. Kate Rew, who has popularised 'wild swimming' (which I used to know as just swimming) has a video about the place here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waG_VdGRLv4

Ally MacPherson is the land manager on Skye, and appeared on TV with Cameron McNeish when he was making a film about walking the length of the island. He also helped introduce me to the majority of the people in these photographs. He lives not too far away, in a quieter part of the island than the road to Elgol, which is itself so spectacularly scenic that it is a bit of a honeypot. It is such a scenic location, Elgol and Torrin, that I was a little surprised to find much of a Gaelic speaking crofting community left. Ally described himself as 'a crofter to the back teeth', and his father and grandfather used to keep sheep around the Blaven slopes. "You don't really keep sheep to make much money, you do it because it is in the blood, because your father and grandfather did it, and it helps to keep the language alive."

One of the skills that Hector Nicolson, from Sconser, keeps alive is dry stane dyking. I found him, eventually, at Morvich near Kintail on the mainland. He has run dyking courses for John Muir Trust groups in the past, as well as providing camping space for volunteers. The group that he was working with today contained a mix of accents, professions and ages, including three generations of one family - but all men. One said to me, "It is a very gentle process, everyone working together to the same end, quietly, like a murmer." I should make it clear that the section of dyke that Hector is leaning against in the photograph has not been repaired yet - he was quite clear about that.