By Auryn Cox BBC Scotland News Image caption, A group of about 20 Muslims took part in the walk to Lady Evelyn’s tomb It’s mid-morning in the north-west highlands of Scotland and automobiles are beginning to drip into a forest automobile park off the A890 in Glen Carron. The day guarantees to be damp, however there’s a short minute of sunlight as a group of 20 walkers prepare for a 10km (6.2 mile) walk up Gleann Fhiodhaig in Wester Ross. It’s a scene played out in hundreds of carsandtruck parks throughout Scotland every weekend, however this group of walkers are likewise pilgrims – Muslim transforms who strategy to checkout the tomb of a Victorian aristocrat. They’ve tookatrip from Edinburgh, Liverpool, Leicester and beyond to honour Lady Evelyn Cobbold – idea to be the veryfirst British-born Muslim lady to make the Hajj expedition to Mecca. The spiritual event was arranged by The Convert Muslim Foundation, a UK-based charity which supplies assistance networks for individuals brand-new to Islam. Founder Batool Al-Toma, herself a transform from Ireland, beckons the group to start their journey into the mountains. “Ever consideringthat I heard about Lady Evelyn, I’ve been interested in her story. She was rather a powerful girl who neverever let herself be sidelined simply because she was a lady,” Ms Al-Toma states. Image caption, This location of Scotland has a special connection to Mecca through Lady Evelyn Not long into the stroll, the rain begins. Hats and waterresistant hoods cover heads and hijabs. As the wind and rain batters them, numerous of the group consider Lady Evelyn’s last journey up the glen to her picked burial area. She passedaway in January 1963 throughout a especially cold winterseason and was buried on an separated hillside on her Glencarron estate. A only bagpiper, “shaking from cold”, played MacCrimmon’s Lament and an Imam from Woking, Surrey, carriedout the burial rites, according to an account released on the Inverness Mosque site. The link to Woking still exists, with a agent from the town’s mosque signingupwith this walk to her tomb practically 60 years
Read More.
