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AD800, 1890, 2012: Ullaness, the home to the Scottish legend of Ulla..
Women of the Dunes
What you need to know before your trail
On the rugged, sea-lashed coast of west Scotland lies Ullaness: home to the Scottish legend of Ulla, a Viking woman who washed up on Scottish shores centuries ago. The legend will bring the stories of three different women together…
In AD 800 there is Ulla, lost in a foreign country after her lover is brutally killed. Ellen, a servant-girl in the 1800s, catches the unwanted attentions of the master of the house’s lascivious son. And, in the present day, there is Libby – an archaeologist who is determined to uncover an age-old mystery.
When a body is excavated from Ullaness – the body of someone who was murdered long ago – the mystery deepens, and the fates of the three women become ever more tightly bound.
Travel Guide
Ullaness off the West Coast of Scotland
Ullaness? Hebrides, Scotland
“Legends are tales retold, over and over again, down the generations. But does truth survive the centuries of retelling, or does it twist and warp along the way? Libby Snow first heard the legend of Ullaness from her grandmother in Newfoundland, but when she comes to Ullaness on Scotland’s west coast, she finds that she was not told everything”
Ullaness might be fictional but there is very real and haunting beauty to the descriptions of this place and so it feels very real:
There was an awesome beauty to this place, and she looked up seeing gulls blown landward by the wind wheeling above her,their wingtips catching the moonlight against a darkening sky. Others circled out to sea, beyond the grey shapes of distant stacks, heading for the horizon over which lady the next landfall, two thousand miles away.”
The magic of the novel comes in the form of Ulla, the lovely pagan whom the ocean had delivered to the rocky treat where Odrhan stood. “Had Ulla learned to love the chase monk or remained true to her dead lover?” Maybe the secrets and legends will be discovered in the richly bound books in the library at fictional Sturrock House on the island…
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
I should have read this novel sitting on a rocky cliff, the wind in my hair, the salt of the sea on my lips and the rustle of an excavation going on behind me. I’d only read the first chapter when I thought that, and loe and behold, by the time I turned the page, it was as if I was right on that cliff anyway.
Scotland’s secrets, a legend of a girl torn between right and wrong, two men, missing jewels and illegitimate children. Oh and did I mention the legends. Ulla of Ullaness sounds as real as any legend I’ve read about. Although UIlaness is fictional, there is a small town called Ullapool which really seems to fit the bill. On the coastline where the waves crash and where the seasalt air cloaks all that happens there,this book meshed the essence of a Scottish harbour town and created a legend all of its own.
Three women through time narrate the tale and that’s something I really enjoyed as it added so much to the overall atmosphere. A Norsewoman of 800AD, a Scottish servant in 1890s and then a archeologist in 2012. The stories they tell!
Totally and utterly captivating.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Women of the Dunes
Destination : Scottish Hebrides, fictional “Ullaness” Author/Guide: Sarah Maine Departure Time: 800 AD, 1890s, 2012
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