When we left the house soon after ten this morning to climb the southern slope of
Druim na Gearr Leacainn, the ridge that runs along the back of Ormsaigbeg, the only frost was a thin coating on the roof of the car. But the higher we climbed, the more the small burns that run off the ridge were frozen, and the worse the conditions became underfoot.
So we weren't paying much attention when we rounded the shoulder of a spur and came across these three fine young red deer stags. It's the first time we've seen deer on this side of the ridge, browsing across the Ormsaigbeg common grazings. This huge area of common land is almost deserted at this time of year: the only other life we saw all morning were a few sheep and two woodcocks, both of which left it until the last moment to get up, giving us a tremendous shock.
This is the view we had from the western end of the ridge, looking across a small valley to the rounded summit of
Dubh Chreag, the black crag. This is spectacularly broken country, and the winter colours, of dead heather and the sudden green of spagnum moss, quite breathtaking.
As we turned and walked eastwards along the ridge crest,
Druim ne Gearr Leacainn offered views across the peninsula to Ardnamurchan Point Lighthouse, which looked almost tropical with the surround of blue sea and sky....
....but one of the twin lochans tucked in behind the ridge was covered in a thin skin of ice. The hill immediately beyond the lochan is
Stacan Dubha, the black cliff or precipice, while the summit beyond is
Meall an Tarmachain, Ptarmigan Hill.
The eastern end of the ridge falls away to the village of Kilchoan, with West Ardnamurchan's highest hill, Ben Hiant, rising behind it. It seems like weeks since we last had a full day's sunshine, so it was a joy to be walking in the hills again, and good see the village basking in the sun's warmth.
When we left the house soon after ten this morning to climb the southern slope of Druim na Gearr Leacainn, the ridge that runs along the back of Ormsaigbeg, the only frost was a thin coating on the roof of the car. But the higher we climbed, the more the small burns that run off the ridge were frozen, and the worse the conditions became underfoot.
So we weren't paying much attention when we rounded the shoulder of a spur and came across these three fine young red deer stags. It's the first time we've seen deer on this side of the ridge, browsing across the Ormsaigbeg common grazings. This huge area of common land is almost deserted at this time of year: the only other life we saw all morning were a few sheep and two woodcocks, both of which left it until the last moment to get up, giving us a tremendous shock.
This is the view we had from the western end of the ridge, looking across a small valley to the rounded summit of Dubh Chreag, the black crag. This is spectacularly broken country, and the winter colours, of dead heather and the sudden green of spagnum moss, quite breathtaking.
As we turned and walked eastwards along the ridge crest, Druim ne Gearr Leacainn offered views across the peninsula to Ardnamurchan Point Lighthouse, which looked almost tropical with the surround of blue sea and sky....
....but one of the twin lochans tucked in behind the ridge was covered in a thin skin of ice. The hill immediately beyond the lochan is Stacan Dubha, the black cliff or precipice, while the summit beyond is Meall an Tarmachain, Ptarmigan Hill.
The eastern end of the ridge falls away to the village of Kilchoan, with West Ardnamurchan's highest hill, Ben Hiant, rising behind it. It seems like weeks since we last had a full day's sunshine, so it was a joy to be walking in the hills again, and good see the village basking in the sun's warmth.
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