The Achiltibuie Stone

The Achiltibuie Stone painting (97x81x6cm,acrylic on recycled canvas) created for the Spirit of The Highlands award (Spirit:360).

The Achiltibuie Stone tells the story of two children who discover a runestone in the dry stone dyke between their crofts.

For more info watch the Making of The Stones video.

PDF downloads of the story and script versions.

For the runic symbols on the runestone in the painting I had fun using an online Rune Convertor.

The Achiltibuie Stone was raffled on the 3rd Aug,2024, to help THELMA fundraising to help pay bills, free play and activities at The Wee Hub @ThelmaScotland , Ocean Terminal, Leith.

Inspiration

I grew up in Lochinver and Inverkirkaig in Sutherland. A runestone was discovered in Inverkirkaig in 1987, but it turned out to be a memorial placed there in 1977.

I set my fictional story in Achiltibuie, as our family spent many holidays there.My uncle Kenny MacKenzie was the headmaster for many years and my aunt Marlene had the Coigach herd of Highland cattle. She taught me how to paint landscapes in oils.

Achiltibuie is Gaelic for Field of the Yellow-Haired Boy so I gave Douglas yellow hair.

Bucket of Frogs

In 2008 my short story The Achiltibuie Stone was published in New Writing Scotland anthology Bucket of Frogs.