I'm re-reading Ring of Bright Water, on account of looking at OS maps.
I found myself drawn into the OS maps of South Skye, the way you do.
My eyes were drawn to the contours, and you follow them through places with beguiling Gaelic names, and so it was I came to Glenelg, and then to the remote isolated bay of Sandaig.
That was the setting for the book, although Gavin Maxwell never referred to it by that name, calling it Camusferna.
I discovered that the name of the book was not simply a literal geographical observation.
It was taken from the opening lines of a pome by his contemporary and friend,
Kathleen Raine.
A pome called
'The Marriage of Psyche', referring to the tale of
Cupid and Psyche, from the larger work of Metamorphoses.
"He has married me with a ring, a ring of bright water
Whose ripples travel from the heart of the sea,
He has married me with a ring of light, the glitter
Broadcast on the swift river."