J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

The sketch drawn along the fore-edge of this page, with the sketchbook turned to the right and inscribed ‘Loch Slapin’, has helped to determine Turner’s route around Skye. Having landed at Ardvasar and visited Knock Castle (folio 78; D26590), Turner then crossed the Sleat Peninsula and drew Dun Scathaich Castle near Tokavaig (folio 87 verso; D26608), before proceeding to Elgol, which was his base from which to visit Loch Coruisk (folio 39; D26512). The present sketch demonstrated that he then proceeded across the Strathaird Peninsula around the head of Loch Slapin to Broadford.

David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan suggested that this sketch was made from the head of Loch Slapin and shows the view west across the loch and towards open sea with the Sleat Peninsula at the left and the Strathaird Peninsula at the right and with the islands of Rum and Eigg seen between.1 However, this view is not possible from the head of the loch. A more likely location is Torrin Beach to the west of the loch. This accounts for the bay in the foreground where Turner has shown waves lapping at the sand. From here one can see the island of Eigg directly ahead and part of the island of Rum beyond the point of the Strathaird Peninsula at the right. On folio 76 (D26586) Turner sketched the ridge of Bla Bheinn in the distance to the west; this was probably made from the same point. There is another sketch of Loch Slapin on folio 41 verso (D26517).

Turner used the spare space at the head of this page for a sketch of a town with a castle on a headland. Considering the proximity of this sketch to two studies of Castle Maol at Kyleakin on Skye on the opposite sketchbook page (folio 75; D26584), this is the most likely identification. The shape of the castle ruins and their position on a small headland just beyond the busy harbour town all suggest Castle Maol, although the shape of the shore to the left looks wrong. David Wallace-Hadrill and Janet Carolan treat the identification with caution, noting the similar appearance in Turner’s day of nearby Eilean Donan Castle.2 However, Eilean Donan stands on a much lower island (rather than a headland connected to the shore), so that alternative is not likely, and Castle Maol remains the most likely identification.