NORTHERN DRIFT: Seeing the special qualities of the far north through other eyes
My parents are over from Canada, visiting me at my home in Caithness. It is wonderful to see them and spend time together. We’ve already enjoyed some day trips in their first week and look forward to exploring other exciting places. Yesterday we drove to the Duncansby Stacks for a walk and some fresh air. The sun was out and the day opened up in front of us, as did the land and seascape which stretched out towards a clear view of the Pentland Firth, Stroma and the Orkney Islands.
In this northeast part of Scotland there is a special elemental quality that is hard to describe. You feel on the edge of the world. Duncansby was busier than I ever remember, with people from all backgrounds. When I looked at the license plates in the car park I could see there were visitors from the Czech Republic, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland…at this time of the Olympics it's incredible to see the intersection of so many nations in the far north too!
While walking near the large towers of rock jutting out of the sea, we watched some people climbing down a steep path towards the beach below, a precarious scramble that needed careful footing. One young man was making his way up the cliff. We stopped to talk with him and noting the accent, we asked him where he was from. He mentioned that he and his girlfriend, scrambling up behind him, were visiting from Belgium. He spoke Flemish, but his English was good enough to understand. We chatted about our birthplaces - my parents in Holland, mine in Toronto, his in Belgium, and the differences between these environments and then this northeast corner of Scotland.
The Belgians spoke about the build up in small countries like theirs. How a natural space so easily gets filled up with new developments and industry. My father nodded his head in agreement. He had seen the same in Holland and it was one of his reasons for emigrating to Canada!
My brother, who visited last year, said that if the Stacks or Dunnet Head had been in America, there might have been a welcome centre, larger paved car park, a coffee bar and restaurant and signs pointing this way and that. He was struck by the rugged and simple beauty.
When he and I walked along those same clifftops, we met someone from the Ukraine who had come over to the UK at the start of the war before being called to enlist in the army. He was one of the lucky ones he said - he had a good job that he could pick up in another place. But he spoke about his neighbours who had been killed, and his parents who were still in Kharkov. There was emotion in his voice, it was hard for him to hold back the tears, and he acknowledged the healing power of such a landscape. We parted ways, though I have never forgotten that unexpected meeting.
Along with the variety of cultures and stories one can encounter in this place, what can be found in the north of Scotland is a simple unspoilt outcropping of cliff and sea, home to many birds and seals, and other natural wildlife. Currently the sea thrift that grows on the grassy cliffside is fading, and the thorny purple thistles are coming out in the fields in full force. There is such variety!
Just last week, Caithness and Sutherland’s Flow Country, quite possibly the largest area of flow country in the world, was officially declared a UNESCO world heritage site. This is wonderful news, after a 40-year campaign to get to this point. Achieving world heritage status is a rare honour – particularly for a landscape.
What does it mean? It means we can (hopefully) protect and preserve this precious and unique carbon store of wildlife and peatland for the future. What a treasure! What a responsibility.
The far north of Scotland provide a unique place of welcome to all nations - a vantage point that allows one to stop and breathe, giving space to mind, body, heart and soul, an inspiring viewpoint from which to see the beauty of our precious world and to gain hope for the future.
Monique Sliedrecht is an artist and blogger based at Freswick. Visit her blog at www.moniquesliedrecht.com
