lonbain Wall

In remote and desolate spot on the Applecross peninsula in Wester Ross is the ruined village of lonbain, a remnant of the clearances of the 1780's.

Above the beach, on a plateau above the shoreline, is a sheepfold made of the most beautiful rounded stones. The wall is beautiful, each stone, shaped to perfect ovoid symmetry by hundreds (thousands?) of years in the sea. Each stone is decorated with intricate colonies of lichen. I first saw the wall in the mid 1970’s when, as an art student I travelled to the highlands with Margaret. At that time, travelling in the highlands felt like an expedition.

I began to photograph the wall seriously in about 1980 and it, its surrounding beach, and the work I have developed around it, is at the absolute root of my art.