14 May, 2006

North West Highlands

Hello again, and thank you for your kind comments. Normal blog posts resume tomorrow (Monday). I've been hillwalking in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, a breathtakingly beautiful landscape of mountain, lochan-jewelled moorland and coastline and on a fine day in spring as close to heaven as I ever hope to find on this earth. Here are a couple of photos, both taken from the summit of Beinn an Eoin (Hill of the Bird):



Looking back down the north ridge (the route of ascent) and out to sea. The Outer Isles are just visible in the distance; it was a day when the view reaches to the edge of the world.




Looking across the corrie to Baosbheinn (Wizard's Hill). (No, I don't know the origin of the name)

11 comments:

Marg said...

Gorgeous pictures!

Gabriele Campbell said...

Ohh, now I'm green with envy, really emerald green. :)

Hope you had a fun time. Enjoy reading all the blog posts we wrote in your absence.

Susan Higginbotham said...

Beautiful!

Kathryn Warner said...

Gorgeous photos, Carla! Hope you had a lovely relaxing time..

BTW, I tagged you for the meme that's been doing the rounds....
http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/2006/05/me-too-meme-edward-ii-responds.html

We've been having a lot of fun with it! :)

ali said...

I think the north-west is one of y favourite parts of Scotland - for scenery, it's definitely best.

It looks like you had great weather as well. We went last summer but weren't so lucky!

Bernita said...

Oh, oh, the yearning.
The beauty of rock and water and sky - and names.

Carla said...

It'll take me a while to catch up with all the blog posts while I was away, so bear with me. And I am hopeless at memes - I can never think of anything intelligent to say - but that one looks fun so I'll see if I can have a go at it. Bear with me on that too!

Ali - you can't see the westerly gale in the photos, or the fact that we were hiding under a boulder from a hailstorm ten minutes earlier :-)

I'll pass on all the compliments to the photographer.

Martyn said...

Absolutely stunning. That really is a special part of the world. We were up there last October and the colours were really intense.

Alex Bordessa said...

Ah, Scotland. Exactly how much did it rain/hailstone? ;-)

Sarah Cuthbertson said...

What inspiring photos - mountains so lift the heart, don't they, when the day is clear? I'm sure you came back refreshed and reinvigorated.

Carla said...

Martyn - yes, autumn in the Highlands can be a special time if the weather is kind (!), especially with the red deer stags belling. Where exactly were you?

Alex - Actually not that much - it sounds like you had more extreme weather in York! We had a run of four consecutive clear days last week, during which we ambled up 9 Munros and a Corbett, and as a result my knees are knackered - temporarily, I hope :-)

Sarah - there's a lovely quote from John Muir, something like, "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings..... the storms will blow their energy into you, while cares drop off like autumn leaves." (Though he didn't mention that the cares have to be picked up again when you come back).