IT WAS WALKING the hills that brought me to Gaelic. After spending years working in hospitality, constantly surrounded by people, I took any opportunity I could to flee to the Highlands and Islands, seeking space, quiet and solitude. I was eventually drawn to the jagged mountains and vast open landscapes of the far north-west, the ruggedly beautiful region that begins just north of Ullapool and stretches up the coast to Cape Wrath and around to Bettyhill. The unique hills of this part of Scotland have almost celebrity status: Ben More Coigach, Stac Pollaidh, Cùl Beag and Cùl Mòr, Suilven, Canisp, Quinag, Ben Stack, Arkle, Foinaven, Cranstackie, Ben Loyal and Ben Hope.
In his poem A Man in Assynt, Norman MacCaig calls the skyline up here ‘a frieze and a litany’.…