The first sight of this glorious loch, as the stage coach from
Auchnasheen station brings the traveller to the top of a steep
descent, is calculated to excite the liveliest emotions of wonder and
surprise. The road reminds one of some Alpine pass, while far below
stretches the large sheet of water, with its western end eighteen
miles away. If for a moment a feeling of the smallness of the loch
should supervene, the huge hills dwindling it down by their enormous
bulk, this soon passes away, and we feel to be in presence of one of
Scotland's proudest lochs. The coach drive to Gairloch occupies six
hours in all, including a short stoppage to bait the horses at
Kinlochewe, and during the whole time the eye is filled with pictures
of grandeur or of delight. After the tedious descent to the water's
edge has convinced you that the feeling of smallness is a mistake, you
have time to observe the effect which such a mountain as Ben Slioch
has in dwarfing all around it. Loch Maree is but six miles from the
sea, with no great descent, so that the hill raises its mighty
shoulders almost sheer from the sea level. From the road you perceive,
skirting the loch on the other side, what seems a fringe of very small
bushes. But anon a two-storey house appears among the bushes, which
now, with a known standard of comparison, are seen to be tall trees!
From the top of Ben Slioch, or any of the neighbouring mountains of
first-class size, the view is grand, embracing at once the Atlantic
and the German Oceans. On the opposite side from Ben Slioch is the
Scottish _Pentelicus_, Ben Eay, whose brilliant white quartz pinnacle
may sometimes be seen shining in the sun, like the famed marble
mountains of Greece.
On the bosom of Loch Maree, near its widest end, are several islands,
the largest of which, Eilan Mhaolrubh, contains the remains of an old
chapel, and a holy well that is even yet in high repute amongst the
ignorant. It is sometimes said that the chapel, island, and loch get
their name from the Virgin Mary, but this is now universally
acknowledged amongst scholars to be an error. It was the Irish
preacher, Maelrubha, (Latinised to Malrubius, then softened down in
local tongues to Mulray, Mourie, and Maree,) who came over to Scotland
in the seventh century, who gave his name to the place. Dr. Arthur
Mitchell, in his Rhind Lectures on Civilization, has told in full the
story of the curious superstitions concerning this island, of which
examples as recently as twenty years ago are quoted. It is to be noted
that when, a year or two ago, the Queen visited the island, great
indignation was expressed in some quarters, because it was on a Sunday
evening she got rowed over from her retreat at Talladale to see this
interesting place.
The coach leaves the edge of the loch at Talladale, after a lovely and
varied drive along its banks, now in the bosom of a dense wood, now in
the midst of a rocky chaos,
'The fragments of an earlier world.'
A few miles down the road are found the romantic falls of the Kerry.
The man on the box seat at the left of the coach looks sheer down the
precipice over which the stream falls, as the coach with a swing turns
the corner of the steep road, with little visible between the
traveller and the dangers of that awful chasm!