2550

Local artist James Hawkins of RhueArt has had his work selected for inclusion in the inaugural 2023 Scottish Landscape Awards.

This is a new prestigious award and exhibition celebrating Scottish Landscape Art. From an initial submission of nearly 3000 works, 140 have been short listed for the award. The exhibition, which is organised by the Scottish Arts Trust in collaboration with the City Art Centre, opens to the public at City Art Centre, Edinburgh on 4 November 2023 and will enjoy a continual run until 3 March 2024. www.jameshawkinsart.co.uk www.scottishartstrust.org/landscape www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/scottish- landscape-awards
*****

Gilpin Bradley steps down as Managing Director of Wester Ross Fisheries.
Following the sale to MOWI in June 2022 WesterRoss has retained its exclusive individuality and is the last independently managed Scottish sea farm, retaining its own unique position as a premium artisan product in the marketplace.  Gilpin will be sadly missed by all at Wester Ross and in the wider salm

GREAT GLEN WAY DIVERSION UNTIL SUMMER NEXT YEAR

Forestry and Land Scotland is advising walkers, cyclists and horse riders that from October ’23 until summer ’24 they will be diverted to the Low route on the Great Glen Way between Invermoriston and Allt Na Criche.
The High route is to close to allow for the safe felling of very large trees on the steep and difficult site at Sron na Muic.
Built in around 2015 as a detour to allow walkers to avoid forest operations, the High route – although not a core path – has come to be a more popular path than the Low route, which is the official Great Glen Way route.
Sandra Reid, FLS’ Visitor Services Manager, said;
“This is part of our ongoing and long-term steep ground felling project along the A82.
“Because the trees are so huge we will be using a cable winch to safely lower the felled trees downhill. It’s a dangerous operation and for safety reasons we are having to close the High route, where the dangerous cable winch will be operating.
“At times there will be lorries and timber stacks on the Low route but we will have safety signage in place and the Low route will remain open with only short delays when lorries are moving and loading.
“It’s a temporary diversion for one section of the Great Gen Way and we don’t expect it will affect visitors’ experience of the route.”
Path users will be diverted onto the Low route between Allt na Criche, near Fort Augustus, to Invermoriston.
Lorries will be entering from Rubha Ban and leaving the forest the same way or through Allt na Criche and not through Dalcataig village.

*****

A Scottish Walk J. David Simons

When I was setting off four years ago to a writing retreat in France to begin work on my fourth novel The Land Agent which is set in Palestine in the 1920s, I decided to take with me the book Palestinian Walks, a memoir by the Palestinian writer and lawyer, Raja Shehadeh.
Although Raja’s book describes a series of walks beginning fifty years later than the era of my own novel, I wanted to read his account in order to get some sense of the ancient landscape of that region from a Palestinian perspective.
In his memoir set over a period of twenty years, Raja gives an eloquent and stoic account of his journeys around the hills of Ramallah, the dry riverbeds of the Jerusalem desert and the canyons bordering the salty shores of the Dead Sea.
I recall being deeply moved by his memories of a vanishing landscape as the realities of the Israeli occupation began to encroach both on the extent of his freedom to roam and the natural beauty of his environment.
But what struck me most was the gentility of this writer, his humility and humanity, the seeming lack of bitterness as access to much of the land he called home became more and more restricted as time went on.
Earlier this month (May 2016), I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet Raja when we were both scheduled to appear at the Ullapool Book Festival. During a short break in activities, I decided to take advantage of the occasion to invite Raja to go walking with me. As writers and lawyers (although I had given up that profession many years before) with a shared interest in Palestine we had much in common.
We were joined by the British/Israeli academic and historian Avi Shlaim as we meandered through the streets of the picturesque fishing town on the edge of Loch Broom before wandering inwards along the paths by the banks of the River Ullapool.
Of course, we talked as we walked, discussing the seemingly insurmountable problems confronting both Israel and Palestine – the disputed narratives of our respective histories, whether a two-state solution was still possible, the effectiveness of the Boycott, Diversity and Sanctions movement, and many other topics beside. We didn’t always agree but the important feature of our conversations was that we listened. What left me with a lasting impression from this conversation was that Raja, despite all the setbacks he and his people have endured in their dealings with Israel, still remains hopeful that a peaceful solution is possible.
As writers, Raja and I possess both an ability and a responsibility to listen and to imagine. And in that listening and imagining, we can ask ourselves – what if the other person is right? And I ask the same of all
Israelis and Palestinians, Arabs and Jews. Try it for a moment. Listen to the other person, really listen. Try to dig yourself out of your entrenched position and imagine that he or she on the other side of the debate may be right. Perhaps just 10% right. Or even 20%, 25%. And then we have started a dialogue, a process that hopefully will march us towards a mutual understanding. A process that may even end up in peace between these two ancient peoples. For as long as we are in denial about the validity of the other party’s narrative, nothing can be achieved.
There was a point on our walk when I had to ask my two companions to stop. I found that I was deeply moved by the occasion, this opportunity to accompany Raja on this journey, in the same way as I had imagined walking with him four years previously via his accounts of his hikes in the hills around Ramallah. This was our Scottish walk in the Highlands without fear for our safety and without any restrictions in our access to the beauty of the place. I hope one day that I can join Raja in a similar walk in Palestine.
(Our thoughts are with Raja and his wife Penny who are currently living in Ramallah)

*****

Books for Christmas?

Under the Radiant Hill : Life and Land in the Remotest Highlands by  Robin Noble

Keeping Joy by Morven-May MacCallum