Anna Shepherd was born on February 11th 1893 at East Peterculter 3 miles west of Aberdeen.
Nan, as she was known, spent most of her life living in the same house she grew up in. As well as looking after her mother she went to Aberdeen High School for Girls, and studied at Aberdeen University before joining, what is now Aberdeen College of Education, teaching English literature, Nan has been described as “an inspiring teacher, with a feminist approach in her lectures which was ahead of her time” She taught there until her retirement in 1956.
Shepherd’s first novel, The Quarry Wood, was published in 1928, with two more following in the 1930s. All three are set in the North-East with the country communities and harsh landscape as background. Her book The Living Mountain, a work of poetic prose exploring her close relationship with the hills, was written in the 1940s, though not published until 1977. Hill-walking was Shepherd’s great love; her work mostly centred on her love of The Cairngorms.
I must admit I haven’t read much of her writings other than a few poems, but I recall s friend Steve, who lives on Skye posting about her on his, well his dogs’ twitter page, saying “Nan Shepherd has the gift to describe the mountains the way I feel it, and I only wish I could do it justice in words as she can.” This made me look her up and watch The Living Mountain: A Cairngorms Journey, it was on the BBC iPlayer but has gone now. I also found several clip on Youtube, just search for her and you will find them.
Nan Shepherd was renowned for the enthusiasm with which she taught and helped students, colleagues, and other writers. Her generous attention was not confined to caring for her invalid mother and the family housekeeper; she devoted much energy to friendships with many writers. She is represented in anthologies of Scottish women poets, and books of mountain poetry. Nan joined those Scottish writers already honoured in Edinburgh’s Makars’ Court when a stone dedicated to her was placed there in 2000.For those of you in Scotland, and have made it this far into my post about Nan, and maybe still haven’t heard of her, dig in your wallet or purse and dig out a Royal Bank of Scotland £5 note, that’s Nan you have been looking at for the last five years.
Summit of Corrie Etchachan
But in the climbing ecstasy of thought,
Ere consummation, ere the final peak,
Come hours like this. Behind, the long defile,
The steep rock-path, alongside which, from under
Snow-caves, sharp-corniced, tumble the ice-cold waters.
And now, here, at the corrie’s summit, no peak,
No vision of the blue world, far, unattainable,
But this grey plateau, rock-strewn, vast, silent,
The dark loch, the toiling crags, the snow;
A mountain shut within itself, yet a world,
Immensity. So may the mind achieve,
Toiling, no vision of the infinite,
But a vast, dark and inscrutable sense
Of its own terror, its own glory and power.
The pics of the house are Nan’s Shanty on the edge of the Cairngorms, high on the shoulder of Morrone, with views over the village of Braemar and the Dee valley that’s her in the doorway with her friend Amelia McGregor, it is said to be the highest in Scotland.
Loads more on Oor Nan here http://www.geopoetics.org.uk/tag/nan-shepherd/
And more about her hoose here https://charlottepeacock.co.uk/2021/03/02/nan-shepherd-cairngorms-shanty/
