CORIATACHAN IN SKY
The third or fourth day after our arrival at Armidel, brought us an
invitation to the isle of Raasay, which lies east of Sky. It is
incredible how soon the account of any event is propagated in these
narrow countries by the love of talk, which much leisure produces,
and the relief given to the mind in the penury of insular
conversation by a new topick. The arrival of strangers at a place
so rarely visited, excites rumour, and quickens curiosity. I know
not whether we touched at any corner, where Fame had not already
prepared us a reception.
To gain a commodious passage to Raasay, it was necessary to pass
over a large part of Sky. We were furnished therefore with horses
and a guide. In the Islands there are no roads, nor any marks by
which a stranger may find his way. The horseman has always at his
side a native of the place, who, by pursuing game, or tending
cattle, or being often employed in messages or conduct, has learned
where the ridge of the hill has breadth sufficient to allow a horse
and his rider a passage, and where the moss or bog is hard enough
to bear them. The bogs are avoided as toilsome at least, if not
unsafe, and therefore the journey is made generally from precipice
to precipice; from which if the eye ventures to look down, it sees
below a gloomy cavity, whence the rush of water is sometimes heard.
But there seems to be in all this more alarm than danger. The
Highlander walks carefully before, and the horse, accustomed to the
ground, follows him with little deviation. Sometimes the hill is
too steep for the horseman to keep his seat, and sometimes the moss
is too tremulous to bear the double weight of horse and man. The
rider then dismounts, and all shift as they can.
Journies made in this manner are rather tedious than long. A very
few miles require several hours. From Armidel we came at night to
Coriatachan, a house very pleasantly situated between two brooks,
with one of the highest hills of the island behind it. It is the
residence of Mr. Mackinnon, by whom we were treated with very
liberal hospitality, among a more numerous and elegant company than
it could have been supposed easy to collect.
The hill behind the house we did not climb. The weather was rough,
and the height and steepness discouraged us. We were told that
there is a cairne upon it. A cairne is a heap of stones thrown
upon the grave of one eminent for dignity of birth, or splendour of
atchievements.
