From Issue Thirteen of Hidden Scotland Magazine

Tall Tale

Gordon Buchanan on really seeing Buachaille Etive Mòr.

Words by Gordon Buchanan

Printed in Issue Thirteen of Hidden Scotland Magazine, Autumn and Winter 2026–27.

Wildlife film-maker Gordon Buchanan grew up on Mull and has spent 35 years filming in the world's wildest places. But it took two mountainless years in the Amazon before he really saw Buachaille Etive Mòr.

Buachaille Etive Mòr, a hulking geological mass, leaves you with the notion that it has stood sentry at the eastern end of Glencoe in all its rugged, towering glory since the very dawn of time. Nothing gives a better sense of permanence than a mountain. Yet even mountains are constantly changing, shaped by forces that work far beyond the span of a human life. They are born, they grow and eventually they’ll be no more. Reduced to particles to be blown on the wind. We have that in common.

They are born, they grow and eventually they'll be no more. Reduced to particles to be blown on the wind. We have that in common.

Waterfall on the River Coupall with Buachaille Etive Mor behind

Another thing we have in common is time. Time changes and chisels mountains, just as we are morphed and moulded by the experiences of our own lives as the years march by.

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