A Grand Composition

The Scottish Highlands are a brutal tapestry. Raw materials exposed by years of relentless battery juxtaposed against pillows of green moss and cotton grass, fields of bracken, swathes of pine woodland and, of course, water through it all.

Disembarking onto the Isle of Raasay is stepping onto a miniature world. These grand compositions are condensed into one fourteen mile stretch of island but seem no lesser for it. The enormity of the Cuillin to the West and the expansive views of the mainland to the East pier inward, as if the island were a stage, and that it is, with forms punctuating the landscape seemingly born of it but simultaneously harnessing the essence of it.

A stone house perches above a black pebble beach. Hidden from view until the landscape reveals its stepped parapet walls: the first indication of human intervention. From the rear it seems modest, perfectly at ease with the material context. It grows in height acknowledging the water, watching and welcoming the Cuillins' gaze with one of equal measure.

Fraser McQuade