Andy Howard - The Secret Life of the CAIRNGORMS

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Contents

The Secret Life of the

CAIRNGORMS

The Secret Life of the

CAIRNGORMS

Andy Howard

Foreword: Cameron McNeish

First published in Great Britain by

Sandstone Press Ltd

Suite One, Willow House

Stoneyfield Business Park

Inverness

IV2 7PA

Scotland

www.sandstonepress.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in

any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

Copyright Andy Howard 2019

Foreword copyright Cameron McNeish 2019

Image copyrights Andy Howard

NB: Most images have been captured within Cairngorms National Park. A few have been

taken from within the wider surrounding area.

Author portraits Christoph Ruisz

Editor: Robert Davidson

The moral right of Andy Howard to be recognised as the author of this work has been

asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The publisher acknowledges subsidy from Creative Scotland towards publication of this

volume.

ISBN: 978-1-912240-80-7

Jacket and book design by Raspberry Creative Type, Edinburgh

Printed in China by Imago

Acknowledgements

My immense thanks go out to everyone who has helped me on the incredible

journey which has taken me to so many wonderful encounters with the animals

and birds of Scotlands landscape. This book is dedicated to the memories of people

who have been dear to me but are no longer with us: my father, John Howard;

Betty Morris, Ruth and John Sawyer; but also and especially to my dear wife,

Lyndsey, who accompanies me through life.

i

Contents

v

Foreword

This beautiful book perfectly illustrates what you

miss if you continue to walk with your eyes proverbially

closed. The exquisite images, the rewards of Andy

Howards infinite patience, remind us that these hills,

scoured by wind, frost and snow, sculpted into corries

and skirted by the finest of natural forests, are like no

others in our northern land.

Nowhere else in Scotland has such sprawling tracts

over 2,000, 3000 and 4000 feet, and, because of that

elevated acreage, no other part can claim such a diverse

range of flora and fauna, from the 300 year old Caledonian

Pines in the glens to the impressive, tiny plants that

cling to the wind-whipped summit slopes, arctic-alpine

communities that, thanks to climate change, are now

living at the very edge of their northern range.

Consider, as you wonder at the craftsmanship and

beauty of Andy Howards photographs, the days and

weeks he spent in often inhospitable surroundings.

Muse on his patience, admire his skill and knowledge

but, above all, remember this. Each image, whether

mountain, tree, bird, mammal or plant, is part of the

infinite web of creation to which

homo sapiens

also

belongs. Understand that, in accepting that kinship,

there is an implicit recognition of order, of a determined

pattern behind the behaviour of things, and let us

celebrate its harmony. There is so much we can learn

from the Cairngorms.

Cameron McNeish

Strathspey

May 2019

Many visitors will traverse the hills and climb the ridges of

the wonderful Cairngorm mountains without looking or

properly seeing, just as I once did. With minds set on lists-

to-tick they will note the wider horizons, but perhaps not

appreciate the tiny but vibrant life at their feet.

When I reached my greybeard years I learned to slow

down and look around although, to be fair, age has a

way of slowing you even if you dont want it to. Now

the words of William Henry Davies reveal their deeper

meaning.

No time to turn at Beautys glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

A poor life this is if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

As I look back on the mountains of my life, memories

of reaching the summits tend to blur. The diamonds that

really sparkle, though, are of the moments that created

the journey: reaching an anticipated ridge, crossing a high

bealach, camaraderie and encounters with wildlife. To

wonder at the miracle that is the tiny moss campion,

silene

acaulis

(or cushion pink), audaciously clinging to life amid

the barren screes of Beinn Macdui; or the joy in the song

of a cock snow bunting, a moving and powerful anthem

to its wind-scoured surroundings; or the excitement of

spotting a dotterel, one of our rarer visitors; or seeing a

golden eagle soar on outstretched wings. These are the

experiences that live with me and, while I dont have the

patience of a wildlife photographer, a rare breed that

is content to wait, and wait, until the light is right or the

subject presents itself, I am learning to look and see.

Responses to the Cairngorms are many and various,

from Nan Shepherds lyrical

The Living Mountain

in an

era when they were much less trod than now, to John

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