time & tide
Spoken by Julia Simmonds

I’ve probably been going up there for over 25 years. Initially we were just passing by because we were staying locally and looking for interesting places. But my real relationship with the area, the west coast of Scotland, began more like 20 years ago.
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I was pulled to the area and we wouldn’t have carried on going back if we weren’t. There are no roads, buildings or towns and nothing interferes with the interaction between the landscape and the sea. I guess that’s quite a big attraction for me, if I think of other places in the country there are lovely bits of countryside in Cornwall and Devon. They have nice landscapes and they have sea but you don’t get vast stretches where there’s no habitation that gets in the way and interferes with that connection between the two.

The bit that particularly draws me back is the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, I'm not quite sure why, perhaps because it’s remote, I know it really well so it feels familiar and it’s really beautiful.
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My first memory of the area was a mix of mountains, lochs, castles, wildlife and the villages. There aren’t many people living in the area but where they do live they’re in tight-knit communities and you get a sense of that from just popping into the village shop, everybody knows everybody. The shops are few and far between but the little village stores are fascinating in terms of their character. They’re not sleek or full of the latest inventions in terms of food - they stock the basics that communities need. It doesn’t matter if the shelves are a bit tatty or the lino on the floor is a bit cracked, it’s just a very different way of life and something I notice every time I go up there.

For a lot of the time it has been an escape, whatever is going on in my life whether it’s stress at work or difficult times at home, you can go up there and completely escape from it for a week. Often there’s no phone or TV signal which isn't a problem because the landscape and complete peace and quiet means I don’t need anything else. The whole place envelops me, I find it very easy to switch off and leave it all behind.
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People might think it’s a bit weird that I go back to the same place so regularly but for me it’s not really like I’m going on holiday. You can go on holidays which take you to new places that are exciting and interesting, see different things and have new experiences. Going to this part of Scotland isn’t like a holiday, it’s almost like visiting an old friend. It’s familiar, safe and reassuring because you’re visiting places you’ve been to so many times before and that’s part of the relaxation. You can go to a place knowing exactly what to expect and you can sit and enjoy it. There’s no pressure, nothing’s going to happen that you don’t already know about and nothing difficult to cope with is going to happen. It doesn’t matter what’s going on in my life at home I always get that feeling when I’m there.


The thing I like doing most when I’m there is getting settled down on a beach with a beach tent for some shelter because you often need it and setting up camp there for the day. Relaxing, reading a book, having a paddle in the water, going out in the kayak or pootling around on the beach looking for shells. Then later heating up some water to make a hot drink or cooking some food, best of all is cooking the food. You can gather what you need on the beach like wood and stones, then dig a hole, make a fire and cook your food. It’s deeply satisfying to have spent a whole day on the beach and finally enjoying a meal you've cooked yourself.



Kayaking is something I’ve only been doing in the last couple of years. It’s added a new element to my appreciation and my interaction with the landscape around me. When I’m out in the kayak it’s so peaceful but it also means you can drift and listen. You’re more aware of what’s around you because you’re completely enveloped in it. We’ve just had an experience where we were drifting along and an otter popped its head out of the water next to the boat, you wouldn’t get that close encounter with an animal like that if you were sitting on the mainland watching. It’s a peaceful and calming way to enjoy the landscape, it’s really nice to be able to do it with the dog snuggled down in the boat and my daughter next to me on the paddleboard.
There’s very specific wildlife I see there that I don’t see anywhere else. Part of the fascination for me and the attraction is learning about the lives of animals like pine martins and otters. Being able to suss out where we need to be to see them and how do we go about it maximises the chance of seeing them. A lot of it is about sitting still, being quiet, absorbing the landscape around you and if you do that you’re much more likely to be aware of what’s going on around you. You’re more likely to see an otter if you’re sitting quietly at the right place at the right time, it’s a matter of being patient. But being able to sit and watch an otter eat a crab it’s just caught in front of you is such a privilege. For me it’s such a special experience to see these animals and we’ve been able to attract pine martins very close to us to feed and they’re fascinating. I’ve spent probably ten years trying to see an otter other than a fleeting glimpse of one swimming by and now we’ve been able to see one so many times I’m sort of feeling like we need a new challenge, maybe it’ll be red squirrels.


I’ve got two favourite places for two different reasons. One is Castle Tioram and the beach there, it was one of the first things we discovered when we first visited and accidentally came upon it. We were wowed by the castle and the landscape, it was the middle of March and a howling gale so it was quite dramatic and has always stuck in my mind. If you go across to the castle and walk round the back of the island it's a great spot to take in the landscape it’s a beautiful vista. It doesn’t matter when you go, what time of day or what the weather’s like it’s still just amazing.



My second favourite place is Glenuig and the beach there. It is a really good place to spend the day, you rarely have other people there and you can get in the kayak and go over to the island. It used to be a real adventure when my daughter was little, but it’s still really satisfying to be able to go over to an island and look back at the mainland. I don’t know why, it really makes you feel like you’ve escaped.

We’ve introduced people to Scotland and when my brother, sister in law and nephew came with us there was a sense of awe when they first saw the landscape when they got on the ferry - fortunately it was glorious weather. But their sense of “wow this is great” and seeing it for the first time through somebody else’s eyes who have never been there stuck in my mind because it’s almost like you’re reliving it again yourself. We take for granted that to get to places up there we often have to get on ferries. For my brother and nephew it was almost like being a kid again and my nephew even got out of the car to see the ferry with his pack of jam doughnuts. It was all so new and exciting. The jam doughnuts for some reason stick in my mind.

When I’m not there and I’m having a bad time I often try to picture it in my mind. It’s good for my mental and emotional health because it grounds me when I visit. But I do find if I’m having a bad time and I try to capture the peace and quiet it’s a sort of bitter sweet thing because I’m reminded I’d give anything to be there right now. So it does help my mental health but the pull, the pull at times like that is stronger. I can’t imagine having going a year without visiting there and obviously there will come a time when I don’t but I’m not quite sure how I’ll feel about that.

It’s a real wrench to go home and every time I go I spend part of my time trying to work out how I can move up there. What would I live in, how would I make a living because there’s a really strong feeling when I’m up there that this is where I’m meant to live. So when I go back home, when I leave the area it’s difficult, but to have to go home to the rat race and all the problems at work is really difficult, almost painful. I think my soul rests in Scotland and I have to drag it back kicking and screaming. It’s something very profound about Scotland that I can’t really verbalise, but it’s very deep seated and it goes right to the core of me. If I could bottle it and bring it home with me that would be great, but I can’t. I don’t really understand why it’s got such a hold on me and I can’t explain it, but to me that doesn’t really matter. I don’t need to verbalise it I just need to know that I’m going to go back.



I’d hate to think I couldn’t get back there but what will change I guess is who I go with. My daughter won’t be able to carry on going every year and friends we’ve been with in the past are doing other things now. The ultimate challenge is would I go up on my own, I’m not sure. I’d feel safe doing it but it’s about having someone to say to “wow look at that view” or “I’ve just seen an otter”, having that interaction with somebody else and it’s not quite the same sharing it with a fluffy little dog. I can’t imagine never going back so I wouldn’t know what it felt like, I don’t want to think about that.
