Diùranais

Digital pigment print in an edition of 15, image size 97 x 71 cm, paper size 107 x 81 cm.

Diùranais (Duirinish) is a peninsula on the Isle of Skye in Scotland that features as one of the 43 ‘core wild land areas’ in the Scottish Natural Heritage map of 2014. The Gaelic name Diùranais means ‘deer headland’ or ‘point of the deer’. The western coast area now described as “wilderness” was inhabited with several settlements until the time of the Highland Clearances.

There has been some discussion as to whether the boundaries presented in the Scottish Natural Heritage Core Wild Land Area maps should be regarded as discrete or fuzzy (i.e. vague). Certainly the concept of wildness is fuzzy and it is difficult to see how the transition from non-wild to core wild land areas can ever be mapped with 100% certainty, but for planning and decision making purposes a discrete and definitive line on the map is required. Protection of wildness and core wild land areas in Scotland needs, despite the uncertainties associated with mapping a vague and fuzzy concept, a definitive line on the map.

Wildland Research Institute, University of Leeds