Mar 26: The Cuillin Hills

Can a landscape truly be captured in music? 

We'll feature plenty of examples of music that aims to do just that over the year ahead.

Duncan Chisholm's album is a wonderful evocation of 'The Black Cuillin' on the Isle of Skye. 

I visited Skye numerous times from my late teens through to my thirties. I stayed in a number of different self-catering cottages from Glen Brittle to Broadford to Duntulm to Tarskavaig and elsewhere. Most of them had a view of the sea or the mountains, or both.

One of them was on a promontory overlooking the Talisker distillery looking down on the village of Carbost and the distillery itself, and then a distant view of the silhouette of the Black Cuillin.

Here's an image of me and a friend Simon before we headed up to tackle the Cioch: a classic location which will feature in a future post.

Duncan's albums are available to stream on Spotify and elsewhere.

Here's a track that you might like: 

Also Martyn Bennett has captured the mountains on his album from 

Martyn Bennett will certainly be featured on the blog quite a bit... he was such a wonderful musician.

Check out his interpretation here. Listen until 21".03"

A piece of music by Martyn Bennett was chosen by the cyclist Danny MacAskill.

Here's his video where he cycles along the Cuillin Ridge, including conquering the Inaccessible Pinnacle - somewhere else I've climbed in the past with my friend's Simon and Caroline (and others).

And here he is on the Dubh Slabs, accompanied by Arcade Fire's music: 'No Cars Go'.

As Danny says of this adventure:

I am a big fan of rock climbing and have been inspired by the various men and woman who set new routes and test themselves on some amazing faces around the world so I set out to find some challenging Slab Rock routes on my home Island of Skye with an aim to ride them in a continuous line and test what was possible on my bike. The remote Dubh Slabs rising out of Loch Coruisk in the heart of the Black Cuilin ridge provided some of the steepest terrain I have ever ridden as well as an amazing back drop for the film.

The Cuillin were also captured in poetry by the Gaelic poet Sorley Maclean.

Other musicians who have 'had a go' include The Tannahill Weavers (although there were the Cuillins of Rhum), Archie Fisher and Moira Kerr.