Fiar Isle / Moussa, Scotland
On the edge of the North Sea, the great waves and storm winds of the Atlantic weave a spell around Fair Isle, setting it somewhere apart from the world around. In the slow magic of this place, years slip by unnoticed, ghosts roam the high headlands and we may find ourselves walking into times long forgotten.
Perhaps it begins with the rocks themselves. These are the sands of ancient lakes, older than the dinosaurs, now uplifted into great battlements above the sea, glowing golden in the cold sun. They are never far away when you roam the hills of Fair Isle, tremendous vertical curtains of stone sweeping up to the edges of the meadows, dominating every outlook.
Below the sea cliffs, beneath the dark waves, lay the bones of ships. Diving here we can find small pieces of the lives and work of men who sailed to this far isle in wooden ships, long ago. A giant anchor rests among the weed-covered boulders and nearby a cannon is slowly becoming one with the rocks of the gully where it fell, its bore eroded open and its iron corroding through the centuries. More than four hundred years they have lain here, since one of the proud flagships of the Spanish Armada met her end in the terrible tumult of crashing surf and merciless rock. Four centuries have passed, but with a moment’s reflection we share those sailors’ thoughts and feelings, struggling to escape from their doomed ship, marooned on this hard shore.
The people of Fair Isle today have mastered the temporal magic that surrounds them. Though their home is remote, they have not turned away from the wider world and the 21st Century. Their lives are ordered by tradition, old ways and ancient skills, but the traditions are their own; they make them and use them as they choose. There is much of the modern world here as well, selected and fit carefully into a rich fabric of living.Fair Isle’s spell is strong and for the morning we were fully swept up in its timeless ebb and flow. If we are lucky, if we are careful, perhaps we can bring a bit of it away with us.
On the edge of the North Sea, the great waves and storm winds of the Atlantic weave a spell around Fair Isle, setting it somewhere apart from the world around. In the slow magic of this place, years slip by unnoticed, ghosts roam the high headlands and we may find ourselves walking into times long forgotten.
Perhaps it begins with the rocks themselves. These are the sands of ancient lakes, older than the dinosaurs, now uplifted into great battlements above the sea, glowing golden in the cold sun. They are never far away when you roam the hills of Fair Isle, tremendous vertical curtains of stone sweeping up to the edges of the meadows, dominating every outlook.
Below the sea cliffs, beneath the dark waves, lay the bones of ships. Diving here we can find small pieces of the lives and work of men who sailed to this far isle in wooden ships, long ago. A giant anchor rests among the weed-covered boulders and nearby a cannon is slowly becoming one with the rocks of the gully where it fell, its bore eroded open and its iron corroding through the centuries. More than four hundred years they have lain here, since one of the proud flagships of the Spanish Armada met her end in the terrible tumult of crashing surf and merciless rock. Four centuries have passed, but with a moment’s reflection we share those sailors’ thoughts and feelings, struggling to escape from their doomed ship, marooned on this hard shore.
The people of Fair Isle today have mastered the temporal magic that surrounds them. Though their home is remote, they have not turned away from the wider world and the 21st Century. Their lives are ordered by tradition, old ways and ancient skills, but the traditions are their own; they make them and use them as they choose. There is much of the modern world here as well, selected and fit carefully into a rich fabric of living.Fair Isle’s spell is strong and for the morning we were fully swept up in its timeless ebb and flow. If we are lucky, if we are careful, perhaps we can bring a bit of it away with us.
