The band Runrig is founded on the music of brothers Rory and Calum MacDonald whose family came from North Uist. Rory was actually born in Dornoch in Sutherland but Calum was born on North Uist itself. The brothers were intially brought up on the island before the family moved to Skye. It was on Skye, at school, where they met up with Donnie Munro who was to become the lead singer for a number of years.
Initially formed as the Run Rig Dance Band, influenced by the rock and roll music the brothers listened to on Radio Luxemborg, the band moved from playing traditional Scottish dance music to composing their own songs which blended influences from the gaelic tradition with a more modern sound. Their first album, Play Gaelic, was greeted with some scepticism amongst many within the gaelic-speaking communities, but slowly they gathered a following both within the gaels and english speakers of Scotland and from there further afield.
Their music still contains elements of the folk tradition, but with a more anthemic rock sound.
This cache was placed to celebrate Runrig's music which was, at least in part, responsible for our first visit to the islands. From their seventh album, The Big Wheel, released in 1991, the song Flower of the West is considered as one of their iconic songs. Indeed, the Runrig Songbook, published in 2000 providing the lyrics and music for all their songs up to that point, was called Flower of the West. In that book Calum MacDonald explains:
The lyric came from a very early memory of my first climb up a hill of any significance. The hill looked down on the Ahmore area of North Uist where our father was brought up and our grandfather had a smallholding. As children, Rory and I used to spend weekends out on the farm, and when I first climbed the Crogaire, it was the earliest realisation of the significance of place and belonging.
The lyrics of the song describe a walk through the pass between the hills of Crogearraigh Mor and Maari and the spritual impact of the realisation that Calum describes.
Sunburst
The morning moor
The light of God
The heart of youth
I look around me
My eyes find their rest on this garden
The flower of the west
Sunrise
The colour frontier
The aging light
The sight that knows no fear
I look over Orinsay to the Trumisgarry shore
To Aloter
And the road to Ahmore
The silent skies
An innocent heart
Holding the moment away
From time in the dark
All I see. All I know
Is touching the sacred earth
Warming the hallowed ground
I survive the childhood universe
And I step the naked heath
Where the breathing of the vanished
Lies in acres round my feet
Past Loch Scadavagh Loch Fada
And the flatlands to the east
Where the dark blue mass of Eval
Meets the rising Rock of Lee
Between the Crogary and Maairi
I started to descend
Loch Aongais on my left hand side
I look across to Clett
Collies barking on the outrun
Dunlin dancing on the sand
Breakers show round Corran Vallique
And empty the Atlantic on the strand
The cache is placed along the walk described. The fit and enthusiastic may wish to walk up to Bealach Maari (the Pass of Maari) or even to the top of Crogary. No need to go that far to collect the cache though!
You should park off the road, remembering that this is an active crofting area, so do not to block the way. Walk up the very obvious path, ensuring that any gates you pass through are left as you found them. Note that there are sheep a plenty around here, so if you have a dog keep it on a lead.
The cache is placed above the croft land a little off the track under a large boulder. It should be an easy find. The cache itself is an unusual container that is quite fitting for the surroundings and placed within a camo bag. It does have room for some small trackables. When placed we put in a log book, a pencil and a Harris Tweed trackable. Any trackable left there should be in a plastic bag as the cache itself is less waterproof than usual (though the log book is very safely protected).
Please ensure that the cache is returned to its hiding place and not visible from the path.