Why a Booktrail?
1950s: Life on an island has never felt or sounded so good
The Ring of Bright Water Trilogy
What you need to know before your trail
Gavin Maxwell went to live in an abandoned house on a shingle beach on the west coast of Scotland. A haven for wildlife he settled there with the otters Mij, Edal and Teko.
He stayed on the island and chronicled his life with the wildlife in one of the most remote places he could have found. He describes life in a simple house located on the shingle beach of a remote bay with only the otters for company as he seeks to eek out a life and existence for himself.
This is the story not only of the landscape, but of the nature and wildlife he sees there, a homage to Scotland and its beauty and the spirit and soul of his island Eilean Ban evoked on each and every page.
Travel Guide
The beautiful and atmospheric Sandaig bay. Not perhaps the most famous or well known spot in Scotland but if you’re a fan of Gavin Maxwell, and the island living he described then you will be familiar with it. Immortalised as Camusfearna in ‘Ring of Bright Water’ – the book tells the story of his time on the island of Eilean Ban and the surrounding area – his Scotland, his land which he pours heart and soul into as he evokes the heart and soul of the land.
Oh the otters –
“Otters seem to find the use of their mouths the most natural outlet for expression, knowing as I do their enormous crushing power I can appreciate what efforts my otters have made to be gentle in play”
Gavin Maxwell’s work is an ode to the landscape of Sandeig, Glenelg and the surrounding area of the Kyle of Lochalsh which adopted him as much as he adopted it. His family are his otters and the landscape of rock and sea his home in every sense of the word.
“The landscape and seascape that lay spread out below me was of such beauty that I had not room for it all at once; my eyes flickered from the house to the islands, from the white sands to the flat green pasture round the croft, from the wheeling gulls to the pale satin sea and on to the snow-topped Cuillins of Skye in the distance.”
An ode to not just an island and remote region, not just to the landscape and the otters who are the star of the show, but to Scotland, a sense of community, a sense of a remote and desolate land seen through the eyes of one man who took it all to his heart and gave it a hug.
Where Next?
