The Rocks Remain –
But Rarely Unmoved
Erratic Blocks
Another mark left by past glaciers are the strangely precarious boulders seen perched on slopes all over Mackay Country. These are erratics. Often they are a different type of rock from that which they perch upon because the glaciers carried them many miles before leaving them strangely stranded when they melted. Some of the rocks and debris carried by the glaciers were frozen into its base, adding to its abrasive power. This scouring left scrape marks – known as striations – in the bedrock itself. These can still be seen today – a good place to look is upstream from an erratic.
Return of the Trees
After the ice, the grasses and birch trees were followed by other tree species. At one time Mackay Country was much more heavily wooded than it is today. Human activity reduced this cover but so too did past climate change. The climate got cooler and wetter during the Bronze Age (2,000 BC to 500 BC) about 1,500 B.C. This was when the famous peat bogs began to form and human communities had to change their lifestyle by cultivating lower down the hill as soils became more acid and summers wetter. Now and again a pine-cone or root turns up in a peat, reminding us of the former extent of forest cover. Today remnants cling on in many corners. Strathnaver is an important area of birch, alder, oak and hazel. The most northerly oak wood is to be found at Badcall, Scourie – at Loch a’Mhuillin - where small, hardy oaks continue to thrive among birch, willow, hazel and aspen.
In ancient times trees were very important for daily life and for the Gaidhealtachd culture. In Alexander Carmichael’s collection of sayings, prayers and psalms used in daily life there is of course one for gathering wood:
Taghaid Fiodh
Tagh seileach nan allt,
Tagh calltainn nan creag,
Tagh fearna nan lòn
Tagh beithe nan eas.
Tagh uinnseann na dubhair,
Tagh iubhar na leuma,
Tagh leamhan na brùthiach,
Tagh duire na grèine (darach)
Choice of Timber
Choose the willow of the streams,
Choose the hazel of the rocks,
Choose the alder of the marshes,
Choose the birch of the waterfalls.
Choose the ash of the shade,
Choose the yew of resilience,
Choose the elm of the brae,
Choose the oak of the sun.[1]
[1] Pp 102-103 A. Carmichael, 1941 Carmina Gadelica: Hymns & Incantations Vol IV