The Bay at the Back of the Ocean

The most beautiful place in the world is called The Bay at the Back of the Ocean, Camas Cuil an t-Saimh in gaelic. It is a bay on the west coast of Iona, with white sandy beaches and a view that goes on forever - on the other side of all that water lies Canada.

Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, on Scotland's west coast. "Inner" isn't really correct, as the ocean is, as mentioned, unbroken from this point all the way to North America. To the north of Iona, the Outer Hebrides start, so here Inner here means southern, and Outer northern.

You need to be a poet to describe it well. I'll just try to add some facts: the white sandy sea bottom makes the water shift into all shades of emerald and blue when the sun's out. When the weather is poor, the colour of the sea changes to a metallic grey-blue.

Before you reach the white beach, you will walk across the "machair", the communal grazing grounds that the sheep keep cropped short and peppered with black poop pebbles, that tiny daisies seem to love. (The machair is also a golf course. I don't know who to feel most sorry for - the sheep who risk getting hit by golf balls, or the golfers trying to play such a rough course.)

The rolling hills that change from green grass to white sand are intermittently interrupted by brownish-black cliffs. "The Spouting Cave" is a natural cliff hollow that, when the waves reach a certain size and direction, throws up geiser-like showers at set intervals.

Facing west, the sunsets here are spectacular, if you are lucky to be here on a sunny day (the west coast of Scotland gets a LOT of rain!). Plenty of sea birds keep the sheep company. I once was chased by an upset oystercatcher (strandskata) - quite unfairly, I assure you, I had not even seen his/her nest! We'd like to think we saw whale fins far out to sea one evening (but the dolphins I once had the luck to see up close was on a boat trip to the north of Iona).

The sky here must be bigger than anywhere else. The clouds travel at varying speeds, you can see rain falling way out to sea while the sun still shines on you, and usually you get good warning and can head home before it hits the island, as you can see it coming from far away.

The light, finally, is incredible. Especially in the summer, when the sun sets quite late. You can find yourself just sitting and staring out to sea for hours (until it gets too cold). But don't stay too late - there are no street lights to see you back on the road to the village...

No wonder Iona inspires so many painters and poets! (I especially recommend "Iona: poems" by Kenneth C. Steven)

I always long to go back to The Bay at the Back of the Ocean.

/Kris C.