Ach na Corra

This grey heron is whiling away the hours of high tide in Ford Park, the glebe for the Church of Scotland manse which stands at the northeast end of Main Street. A glebe is an area of farmland reserved for the use of the minister who, while usually being paid a stipend by the church, was expected to grow some crops and, perhaps, keep a cow or two.

This glebe is a substantial field which runs from the manse almost to the sea and is a favourite place for both herons and curlews. That it's called Ford Park may be a reference to the ford across the Golspie Burn which is located by the turreted building at bottom right.

The name Ford Park interests me only in that it is typical of this area of Sutherland, an English name in a place where, a hundred years ago and more, the vast majority, and certainly the ordinary workpeople, would have spoken Gaelic. So I shall think of this field as Ach na Corra, the field of the heron.