Alexander Mackenzie

Spent a pleasant hour or so in bright sunshine wandering around Avoch an old fishing village on the Black Isle on the shore of the Moray Firth. The harbour is yet another Thomas Telford construction but whilst it may once have been a thriving industry that is no longer so. I panted my way up the steep brae to the Kirk and the enclosure holding the grave of Sir Alexander Mackenzie 1763 - 1820. The image is a detail from the grilled gate into the enclosure. In 1789 he canoed down the river that now bears his name from Fort Chipewyan to reach the shores of the Arctic. In 1792 he set out again from the same fort and reached Bella Coola on the shores of the Pacific making him the first man to cross the continent. At the bottom of the memorial itself, which is also to his wife, there is written:-

From the lone sheiling of the misty island
Mountains divide us. And the waste of seas
But still the blood is strong. The heart is Highland
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.

The graveyard is full of "Jack" and "Patience" - two very common names in this small village.