Lotte Glob & her croft on Loch Eriboll

Lotte Glob is without doubt one of my favourite friends on the North Coast 500. I have known her throughout my years of touring and regularly take guests to her Sculpture Croft beside Loch Eriboll, whether they arrive with an interest in art or not. This is not simply a studio selling ceramics. It is fourteen acres of rough, peat-heavy Highland ground that Lotte has planted, tended and gradually transformed into an artwork in its own right. Paths wander between native trees, ponds, plants and sculptures, with something unexpected waiting around almost every corner.

Born in Denmark, Lotte begins working with clay as a child and leaves school at fourteen to become an apprentice to the respected Danish potter Gutte Eriksen. She establishes her first North Highland studio in 1968 and later moves to Laid, overlooking Loch Eriboll. Her work is inseparable from the surrounding geology. She carries rocks, sediments and other raw materials home from long walks, combines them with clay and fires them at temperatures exceeding 1,300°C. Inside the kiln, those Highland materials melt and transform once again, producing work that appears to have grown from the landscape rather than merely representing it.

The Sculpture Croft reveals a great deal about Lotte herself. Nothing feels overly arranged, yet everything bears the mark of years of imagination and hard physical work. Ceramic books emerge from rocks, strange forms appear beside pools and sculptures hide among trees and plants. You never quite know what you will encounter or where you will encounter it. Once you know Lotte, that mixture of curiosity, experimentation and gentle unpredictability makes perfect sense. She is dedicated to her work, endlessly interesting company and one of those people with whom an intended ten-minute conversation can very easily consume an afternoon.

We call regularly because Lotte’s story and contribution to North Highland life deserve to be shared. Her work appears in public and private collections around the world, but it makes particular sense here, surrounded by the geology, weather and wild landscape that inspired it. I am always delighted when guests purchase something, partly because they take home a genuine piece of the North Highlands and partly because it supports an artist working in one of its remotest corners. I must also confess that whenever a significant birthday approaches, I continue to hope that somebody might decide my own garden requires a piece of Lotte Glob sculpture.

To learn more, listen to the blogcast or book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.