A PHOTO taken in the Scottish Highlands, by a 12-year-old from Ross-on-Wye, has received national recognition.

The spectacular glacial scene, photographed from the top of Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich has won Madeleine Bainbridge a top prize in a competition run by the Geographical Association. She entered her picture and a written narrative into the Physical Geography Photograph Competition and was runner-up in the Years Seven to Nine landscape story section.

“I’ve visited Loch Quoich many times,” Madeleine said. “I climbed Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich at the beginning of August, with my parents and pet dog, Jack and that was when I took the photograph. It shows a deep Scottish fjord, called Loch Hourn, surrounded by beautiful peaks, including the 1020m high Ladhar Bheinn, which falls down into the sea.

“Loch Hourn is contained within a glacial trough carved out by the ice that covered the entirety of Scotland thousands of years ago. This ice dramatically raised sea levels when it melted.”

Madelaine has been invited to the Geographical Association’s awards ceremony at Sheffield Hallam University in April and will receive a prize from Páramo Directional Clothing Systems.

The judges said of her work: “The story leaves a clear impression of the time when this landscape was frozen and introduces some technical geographical terms that indicate a good understanding of the most recent processes that have forged this landscape. This is a very good landscape story, worthy of being a winner.”

Fellow Monmouth School for Girls’ student Eden Greaves, aged 13, was highly commended in the same category as Madeleine after securing a prize for finishing third in the competition 12 months ago. She impressed judges with her photograph and written submission of Llyn y Fan Fach in the Brecon Beacons National Park.