Geographical researches

[regshoe]

Some unexpectedly fine weather here today! The hawthorns and weeping-willows are beginning to come into leaf, it almost felt warm in the sunshine and there were several buzzards doing some impressive circling and swooping flights high above the river earlier today. Unfortunately, my walking plans for the day were scuppered by flooding further downstream after the less good weather earlier in the week, so instead I went into town and bought some maps. I've since spent a very pleasant and worthwhile afternoon reading more stuff about Jacobites and going over the OS map of the Loch Lochy area plotting out the routes taken by the characters in the first couple of chapters of The Flight of the Heron. It was a fun detective exercise working out Keith's movements along the loch, to and from High Bridge and back along to where he and Ewen first meet, and I now have a much better idea of exactly where Ardroy is.

Here's where I think it is. The narrow pass in the southeast here, which leads up from the side of Loch Lochy, is where Ewen brings Keith after taking him captive. When they get to the top of the pass they head westwards, 'in the face of the sunset afterglow', and Ardroy is in front of them. So I think that Loch na h-Iolaire—which is 'little more than a mile long, and... a quarter of a mile wide', and is 'set in a level space as wide as itself'—runs roughly north-south between Meall an Tagraidh and Sròn a Choire Ghairbh, where it would fit quite neatly into the relatively flat area, with the house of Ardroy at its southern end (or perhaps in the southwestern corner, since they 'skirt the end of the little lake' to get there after descending the pass). It could be an extension of the real but much smaller Lochan Fhùdair. Ewen apologises for the steepness of the route and says he wouldn't normally come that way—it looks as though there's an easier route up from Achnacarry along Gleann Cia-aig, so perhaps that's the way Ewen would usually go.

And I see that this more or less agrees with the map in the first edition and the conclusions you've drawn from it, luzula, which is good! The only thing I'm slightly hesitating over is whether it would be possible to see Ben Tee, which Broster says it is, with other equally high hills in the way. I shall have to go there and check.

I'm sure I'll do this for the rest of the book too eventually. I do also have a map of the Mallaig-Morar-Arisaig bit of coastline, which will be very useful for adding a bit of geography to my current WIP as well as upsetting myself by plotting out the last chapter... :D

Comments

[theseatheseatheopensea]

This was fascinating to read. I may be biased, though, because I love geographical research. I love doing it for my stories, even if it doesn't always make it into them, I like having a sense of place, and imagining how things look and feel from a specific point of reference.

(I love maps so much that i even had a wallet with a local map printed on it. I used it so much that it fell to pieces!)

I hope that the weather gets even nicer on your end, so you can go on more walks! :D

[regshoe]

I know—that sense of place and geographical specificity is such an important thing in stories, I always think (and it's something that Flight of the Heron does very well indeed!). I enjoy writing scenes set in places I already know well, but doing the research to try and get unfamiliar places right is great fun too.

That wallet sounds cool :D And thank you—there's more rain and sleet predicted for tonight, but it feels like it's not winter anymore, and I definitely hope to do more walking soon!

[theseatheseatheopensea]

I actually love writing about places I've never been to, which is good, because looking at my fandoms, it will probably always be so ;)

It's not always easy, but I feel that sometimes, a sense of place can be universal and shared among different locations, so there were a few times when writing about an unknown place was less challenging than I thought it would be. Also, getting a local beta helps so much! <3

Yep, that map wallet was so cool, I've always wanted to get a replacement, but never found one again! But luckily I have a copy of this in my flat, so I'm not living a map-less life! :D

And ooh, since it's not winter anymore on your end, please feel free to send it downwards on to us, because it's still very much summer over here! *melts*

[regshoe]

Yeah—when I'm writing about somewhere I don't know well I feel like the important thing is to get the sense of connection between character and place. So if I know my character feels a particular way about this place, I might think of another place that I feel the same way about and base the tone of the description on that, and those sorts of feelings and relationships can be universal in a way. But there is also getting the little details right!

Ooh, that map is very cool. I like all the decorative figures of people and animals, and 'Australia Incognita'!

I will happily exchange weather with you! *pushes winter in your direction*

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Ooh, absolutely, writing about the connection between characters and places is one of my favourite things ever, and it definitely helps to use my own feelings for it. And getting the little details right is like icing on the cake, because it lets you add so much depth and meaning. Sometimes I don't even use the research directly in the story, but it always bleeds into the feel of it, if that makes sense?

And yes I love that map, it's super old by now, so it's kind of faded, but I love it too much to get rid of it!

I will happily exchange weather with you! *pushes winter in your direction*

Are you sure? *attempts to push 30 degree weather yor way*

:D

[regshoe]

Sometimes I don't even use the research directly in the story, but it always bleeds into the feel of it, if that makes sense?

Yes, definitely! It is, as you say, about getting the feel right, both with the details you end up using and those you don't.

Well, for now I'm very much looking forward to the summer, although I may feel differently if we have a proper heatwave later in the year :P

[luzula]

*butts in*

Hey, check this out. : )

[theseatheseatheopensea]

Thank you so much, this is awesome! Thank you for sharing!!!!!!

[regshoe]

:D :D

[luzula]

I'm glad you can finally read it! : D

[luzula]

Yes, that does seem like the most reasonable location--except, as you say, that I think it would be impossible to see Ben Tee from there. That's why I first thought it might be in the dead end valley on the other side of Sròn a Choire Ghairbh, but it seems unreasonable, both because you wouldn't be going over a pass to get there, but also because it seems a bad location for agriculture.

So what are you reading now?

[regshoe]

It does look like the line of hills there goes up and down a bit rather than being a continuous ridge, so Ben Tee might be visible above the lower bits—although it's still odd to mention Ben Tee and not Meall a' Choire Ghlais or whatever else is in the way. Or perhaps Broster's fictional geography extends the flat area for Loch na h-Iolaire by not having those hills there?

I'm reading Culloden and the '45 by Jeremy Black, which is a fairly detailed look at the political and military side of the rising and its wider context. There's some stuff about the European background to the '45, which explains just why France was so important, as well as what Keith was doing in Flanders before he went to Scotland, which was interesting (although I must admit I still find the whole continental situation a bit confusing—it is complicated). Today I got onto the chapters about Charles Edward's advance into England and eventual retreat, which also had quite a bit of discussion of how things could have gone differently and what might have been if they had—Black is very much against the 'Whiggish' view of history that sees everything in terms of inevitable progress towards the present day, and argues persuasively that the defeat of the Jacobites was not inevitable and that there were several ways events could have gone the other way. All fascinating stuff!

[luzula]

That does look like an interesting book--I should probably read some author who isn't Christopher Duffy to see how historians differ in their views. : ) And the larger context looks interesting, too.

[regshoe]

Yeah, from what I've read so far it sounds as though there is/has been quite a bit of disagreement over interpretations of the Jacobites—it's interesting stuff!

[hyarrowen]

Yes - without digging out my maps, which are well buried, that looks right to me. There's more info about the surrounding hills in the other two books which helped me pinpoint it, more or less (the exact location I settled on having gone out of my head.) But I remember there's an actual Allt Buidhe burn there.

I once found a walking blog which covered a long hike from the Dark Mile up through the Ardroy location and ended much further north. The photos of the Ardroy valley showed that the hills round it were much gentler than I expected, which might allow Ben Tee to be seen - the summit at least.

I've seen the notch up which Ewen, Keith and Lachlan trudged, though didn't have a chance to stop and photo it, still less to climb it. That, at least, is very much as I pictured it from the book.

The map of the coast is a lovely one, and the coast itself is still better. The Road to the Isles is wonderful - looks just like the Trollshaws to the north of Rivendell in my mind. Somewhere packed in a box I've got a little bottle of sand from Morar, very soft and fine and silver-white. Beautiful.

[regshoe]

Yeah, I thought there might be a bit more information in the other two books. I shall read them eventually, when I think my heart can stand it :D

In any case, this all sounds amazing—I can't wait to go and see all these places!

Somewhere packed in a box I've got a little bottle of sand from Morar, very soft and fine and silver-white. Beautiful.

Awww... yes, the sands of Morar do sound especially lovely. Broster certainly knew how to pick her significant locations.