Meditation on Fairy Glens

12h April 2007

Sweet Friends-

Spring is here and I am spending as much time as I can in my garden. The most unexpected arrival in my yard has been the fairy glen. I can’t really say I “created” it, let alone “planted” it. It simply seems to have materialized in the past year or so. Who knew a patch of the same landscape I love so deeply in Scotland would make itself at home in the Berkeley Hills.

Across the Trotternish Peninsula from the Quiraing Ridge of Northern Skye is a port town called Uig. It’s where I sometimes catch the ferry over to the Outer Hebrides: residence of the captivating Callanish Stones. (Click here for a beautiful view of moonlight over the Callanish Stones) on the Isle of Lewis.

But I digress. Down the road from this small seaside village of Uig is a sign that reads: “Fairy Glen.” I have turned onto the indicated dirt road four or five times and have reached the glen only once. The other four times I have somehow lost my way and either ended up in a sheep pasture, a muddy deadend or back at the main road.

For someone as practiced at map-reading as I am now after five years exploring remote areas of Scotland and Wales, I must tell you how unnerving it is for me to identify the place on a topographical map, see the signs, and still NOT to be able to actually get to the glen. I have taken photos of the glen, as you can see, and even with all this, it seems to be quite out of my hands, the possibility of visiting there…at least on my terms, anyway.

I have had this experience of “losing my way and then finding it” before in Scotland, however, so though I am unnerved, I am undaunted. All this to say… I’m returning to the Isle of Skye again in May and will once more attempt to reach the glen. Meanwhile, I am loving my own piece of magic and mystery right outside my front door.