Light in Caithness

As an artist, my thoughts naturally turn towards the fading light at this time of year. It’s not that the light is any less spectacular; it just alters and becomes less vibrant and less contrasting. And with less daylight hours my daily routine changes as I spend more time indoors painting and replenishing stock that has sold through various sales and outlets throughout the spring and summer as I prepare for my busy Christmas season. This means in the heart of winter I am very reliant on my daylight bulbs and light boxes and very mindful of my ever increasing electricity bill!

As I reflect on light I think about why I find Caithness so inspiring and it does have a lot to do with the light and the quality of it. Like me, many artists have been drawn to this place and have found it difficult to leave and we all say the same thing, that the light up here is ‘different’. Having come from the south coast, I see it particularly on the sea and on the beaches and how the wet sand will naturally reflect what is happening in the sky.  The light here seems purer and cleaner or perhaps it is simply that there is more space here to see what is happening to the light. One good thing about the change in season is that the sunsets and sunrises become more dramatic and of course there’s always a chance that Aurora Borealis will kindly put on a show. Let’s hope so…

Another form of light that has come to my attention in the last month is in the form of the lighthouses that scatter the coast line and islands around Caithness. I took a tour with Sea Coast Tours to Muckle Skerry, the island north of Duncansby Stacks, and I visited Wick Heritage Centre where I was particularly drawn to the Coast Guard exhibits. I realise now how vital a role these lighthouses have played in saving lives around the treacherous rocks and tidal rips of our coastline. ‘Hell’s Mouth’ is what the tidal streams flowing through the Pentland Firth used to be called and I can see why. These waters claimed many lives and many a sunken vessel now lives in a watery grave on the sea bed, the sea having wreaked havoc and battered each boat into skeletal submission.

So the lighthouses became a necessity. ‘For the Safety of All’, is the motto of the Commission of the Northern Lighthouses as they protect and guide the sailors around the treacherous shores. I am sure that not only acting as a navigational tool, these lighthouses soon became a comforting beacon in the dark, a sign of some other earthly presence when all around was dark and tumultuous.

Pharos Loquitor
Far in the bosom of the deep
O’er these wild shelves my watch I keep
A ruddy gem on Changeful light
Bound on the dusky brow of night
The seaman bids my lustre hail
And scorns to strike his tim’rous sail

Sir Walter Scott writes after a visit to a Bell Rock lighthouse, near Arbroath.

And this brings me to my final reflection on light and that is the light that we all have within us. Watching the BBC2 Scotland programme ‘Being Sixteen in 2014’ and watching Kieran Sutherland of Wick, with Cerebral Palsy state that when the darkness sets in we can either choose to be miserable and despondent or we can choose to be light-filled and positive was an inspiration to us all. “Life doesn’t come and get you, you have to go out there and get it”, sixteen year old Kieran said. What a beacon, what a light, what a ray of sunshine.

So as the nights draw in and the temperatures drop, we can choose to be down-hearted and sad or we can choose to look to the light and create our own light. I’m with you Kieran, I’m off to get me some life..!!