Slow Scotland: Inver

On the link between nature, landscape and food, and the importance of community in slow food ❄️

Inver [noun] from Scottish Gaelic inbhir (“river mouth, confluence”), from Proto-Celtic endobero (“carrying in”).

Lots of places in Scotland and other Celtic countries such as Wales and Ireland contain the prefix inver- (the word has Old Irish and Welsh variants too). It makes sense that so many places here start with inver- or aber-, both indicating a confluence of waters: a place where folk would have settled to make homes within reach of bodies of water and the attendant flora and fauna, living lives informed by the rhythms of nature and the seasons for centuries. As such, I know many inver-ish places in Scotland, but one of the most special is simply, Inver, by Loch Fyne in Argyle and Bute: a place that lives up to its name in the prominence of nature and the beauty of its surroundings, and a slow pace that takes us back in time, to a place where the land and its rhythms took precedence. Let me take you with me…