Annait

Taken near the Bay junction. View over Loch Bay with Sgurr a' Bhagh rising to the left, the isles of Isay, Mingay and Clett and the peninsula of Ard Mor in the distance. Behind the latter, the mountains of Harris rise at the horizon.

Overhead electricity cables are carried on wooden poles throughout most of Skye. This line continues to Trumpan, at the tip of the Waternish Peninsula where it then goes under the sea to emerge in the Outer Hebrides.

The B886 runs past Loch Bay with a lot of wild scenery to be enjoyed

An estate road climbs from Claigan to the area named as Creag-a' Ghuail, on the west side of Beinn Bhreac. It begins as a decent hill road but high on the slope it deteriorates significantly.

The peat bank lies just to the south of Beinn Bhreac's summit. Beinn Chreagach lies in the distance to the west, partly misted.

Boundaries across land generally come in the form of walls, fences and hedges. OS mapping shows a number of lines across the summit ridge of Beinn Bhreac which might be expected to be fences or dry stone walls but these are not. The dark line seen in the centre of the image running away towards the obvious hill top is in fact a turfed rib, presumably with peats lain over a low boulder line - the dark horizontal band at the left side is certainly of that nature. The demarcation is surely to mark a boundary line.

Interesting place, Annait. It is marked 'Annait' on the OS map but I have seen it spelt 'anait' elsewhere. Possibly it should be 'the Annait' or 'an anait', I'm not sure. It is also difficult to give a decent impression of what it looks like in a photograph. You need to stand on it and look all around to really appreciate it. It is a pointed piece of ground between two small rivers, immediately above their confluence. Each of the rivers flows in a gorge. The photograph here shows the gorge on the left as you look downstream. A quite excellent defensive position. It is not that easy to reach even when nobody is defending it! There are signs of ruined walls on the top, including one heavy wall that would have once barred access to the point other than by a single entranceway. What was its purpose? How old is it? Who knows? I have come across some contradictory theories. The one I tend to believe is that Annat sites, of which there are several in the north west of Scotland, appear to be pre-Christian and apparently relate to the worship of Anaitis, the Mother Goddess of the ancient East. In the old Hebrew-Phoenician pantheon, Anaitis or Anath was the sister of the sun god Baal or Bel who was also worshipped in Scotland and Ireland, by the lighting of Beltane fires. Anaitis, from whence, in all probability, is derived the gaelic term annat, was a pre-Christian female deity or goddess who was worshipped not only in Egypt but also in Palestine and Asia Minor. Alexander Forbes (Place-Names of Skye -1923) comments: "Many of the ‘Annats’ are claimed—and it is believed correctly—as pre-Christian.

Barn at the top of Bay village.

Looking north, with the Outer Hebrides on the horizon.

Deep peat at the south west end of the very long summit ridge.

About a mile south of the trigpoint (just visible), this small cairn marks the true summit of the hill.

With Sgùrr a' Bhàigh beyond.

Looking towards the slopes of Sgùrr a' Bhàigh.

Flowing into the Allt Bò-lòin. Near the settlement of Bay.

A tributary of the Bay River. The summit on the horizon is Beinn na Boineide NG2952.

Downstream of the Fairy Bridge.

The link to the Western Isles, carried across much of Skye on wooden poles.