Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 25 on 17/02/2006.

This article is 29 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Pattack Falls – Strathmashie, Badenoch

Photographer Andy Hall captures the favourite place of accordonist and musical producer Phil Cunningham

Pattack Falls near Loch Laggan is a hidden secret of the Highlands. It is the favourite place of accordionist and musical producer, Phil Cunningham.

Deceptively close to the road west from Dalwhinnie, it needs to be sought out. Phil had to send me map references before I could locate this beautiful spot but on first sight, its photographic potential was considerable.

Phil first came across this spot by accident as a young musician returning home from the west. On taking a ‘rest’ stop and whilst waiting for the others from the band bus, he took a wander and had his first meeting with Highland waters. It had such a significant effect that he is compelled to stop every time he travels the road.

To me this picture exemplifies a typical ‘Highland river,’ a high sided gorge with powerful water rushing through the narrow opening. It reminds me of a scene from Kidnapped by RL Stevenson. You almost expect Allan Breck and David Balfour to jump down on their escape from the Redcoats in the thrilling adventure story, partly set in the Highlands.

The photograph was taken in autumn with lovely morning sunlight filtering through the woodland, and it just manages to pick up the pretty red berries of a wild herbaceous shrub to lift the foreground.

In his description in A Sense of Belonging to Scotland: Further Journeys, Phil explains his sense of awe, which I shared when I took the picture, when he reflected how “something so dark and powerful can instil in me such a sense of peace, tran.....

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By Andy Hall

Section : Scenic Scotland

Page number : 14