River Tain

Tain the town is named after the river, apparently, but no one really knows what "Tain" actually means. In Gaelic, Tain is Baile Dhuthaich, or `Duthus' town'. St. Duthus, that is. Tain might be "thing" as in the Scandinavian word for an assembly or parliament (e.g. Tingwall in Shetland; probably Dingwall). But no one quite knows for sure.

The "river" winds its way slowly across the flat area behind the shore, now occupied by the golf course. It's tidal at the bottom, but just above the road across to the Plaids, it stops being tidal, and so makes a good photograph, even when the tide is out (again) as it was today.

We did the Plaids circuit anti-clockwise first thing, before heading into the supermarket to get some bits and pieces we needed to bring back to Edinburgh. I worked through the morning and early afternoon, before breaking off to drive back in very good traffic circumstances indeed.

It has been an amazing little break in terms of how it's made me feel. The best thing is....I get to do it again in three weeks time :-)