Writing competition looks for work focusing on Highland landscape
Writers young and old are invited to submit work for the Hugh Miller Writing Competition.
This year’s theme is the 51 Best Places to see Scotland’s Geology with many in and around Lochaber.
You can use one, many or all locations as a basis for a piece of fiction, non-fiction or poetry and organisers are hoping lots of young people submit work this year for the under 18 category.
Palaeontologist Elsa Panciroli is one of the judges for the competition and explained why a writing competition was set up to honour the Scottish geologist.
She said: ‘Hugh Miller was such an amazing writer and could be described as the David Attenborough of his day in the early to mid 1800s.
‘He wrote the most amazing prose in newspapers and books where he wound together not only the rocks and landscapes, but the folklore and feeling of places. He was also a social activist and very inspiring person.’
Everyone with an interest in the landscape around them, its history and the processes that constructed them is encouraged to enter. Awards will be made in poetry and prose with a weekend for two in Cromarty including a tour and fossil hunting trip as the top prize.
Lochaber has a storied history of geological discoveries including the first place where the process of a volcano collapsing was studied, at Glencoe.
The chairman of Lochaber Geopark, Jim Blair, told the Lochaber Times of all the inspiration that can be drawn from the area.
‘We could have had 51 places in Lochaber alone to see geology, the diversity here is so vast.
‘Eigg was a place that Miller spent a lot of time, finding bits of plesiosaurs and shark teeth, and the parallel roads of Glen Roy were once studied by the likes of Charles Darwin as a geological mystery.
‘Before it was discovered that the roads were made through water being trapped in the glen by a glacier, mythological tales tell of an ancient race of people that cut the roads out of the hill.’
Geopark volunteers are more than happy to help with any geological questions.
The competition closes at midnight on March 15, 2020, and full details are at scottishgeology.com/hughmiller