Castle Keep, Scotland

Castle Keep Visitor Centre or Museum in Strathaird, The Highlands, Scotland

Extract from an article written by Andrew Spooner of The Independent newspaper.

Andrew Spooner is a widely published freelance writer and photographer - his work can be viewed at www.andrewspooner.net

Beneath a dramatic, jagged black ridge of vertiginous mountains the sword smith toils. With each punch of hammer on forged steel incandescent sparks spray out into tiny arcs of light. The sword smith wipes the sweat from his brow and plunges the tempered steel back into the ferocious heat of the forge. In the distance a mist is gathering along the shores of a magical, green isle and mighty sea eagles swoop and soar. The sword smith looks intently into the flames, retrieves the sword and once again the sound of metal hammering metal drifts across the mystical landscape.

No, this isn’t a scene from a Tolkien-inspired fantasy. For Rob Miller  who lives and works beneath the mighty Cuillin mountain range on the Isle of Skye, it is a daily routine. But it’s a routine that he’s had to forge from the travails of life as much as he transforms blank slices of rusting steel into shimmering blades.