Camas Chil Mhalieu, Loch Linnhe
I am going here:
Which is in northwest Scotland. Image © Copyright Donald MacDonald and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence.
I'm going in search of the cottage that my great-grandmother used to go to get away from it all. I want to breathe the air, see what she saw and hear what she heard in the days and weeks, months and years when she never once spoke about her experience aboard RMS Titanic despite, or perhaps because of her courage on that dreadful night nearly 100 years ago.
I don't suppose the place will have changed that much, and when I am standing where she would have stood, looking at and listening to the things she would have seen and heard, I fancy I might sense how best to write about her.
And if any of you reading this have the Gaelic, perhaps you could translate Camas Chil Mhalieu into this language for me ... in a comment.
3 comments:
This is a VERY tentative guess, as I don't have the Gaelic (but used to visit the Western Highlands as a child, and love them, and was curious enough to do some looking around). I hope someone will leap in and correct me if I'm talking rubbish, but I think "Camas" is "bay" and "kil" or "cill" is "church"; the parish church of Kilmalieu was dedicated to a Saint Liubha, so maybe it's the bay of the church of St Liubha?
I envy you your visit, such a beautiful part of the world. I hope you find all you're looking for.
It looks such a beautiful place. I hope you find your great grandmother's cottage. I've recently been hooked by looking up my family history and want to visit Wales again to see where my mother's side of the family lived.
Geranium Cat, thank you SO much. Where did you discover that the parish church of Kilmalieu was dedicated to St Liubha? I'm fascinated ... and I also discovered on my travels that Chil or Cill or Kill does mean Church. Another thought about Camas is that it means Beach ... and that possibly there was a St Mhalieu ... but St Liubha sounds much more likely. I shall investigate more and find myself a Gaelic-English dictionary. But thank you for your translations.
BooksPlease, it was SO beautiful. Heartbreakingly so ... and so quiet. You have to get there slowly because the road is single track. The scenery is breathtaking and I felt reconnected to Scotland and so to my great-grandmother who I only met in the South and only once, but now begins the hard work ... although I am looking forward to it. I hope you make to to Wales to find out about your mother's side of your family.
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