After the B8007, the single-track road that connects us to 'civilisation', has run south past Loch Mudle, it plunges into a wide, open valley hemmed in to northwest and northeast by steep slopes, and to the south by the lumpy country around Torr na Moine. This triangular area is often called 'The Basin'. Yesterday, with a welcome change in the weather, we set out to explore the top of the steep scarp to its northeast, from where we had spectacular views across to Ben Hiant. In the picture, the road can just be seen running along the far side of the valley.
With the sun low, every feature in the valley floor below us was accentuated: the whole area has obviously been intensively cultivated in the past in a complex of field systems, yet there are no signs of any buildings. This must, therefore, have been land worked by people living in the villages to the south - Bourblaige, Tornamona and Camas nan Geall - all of them cleared in the early nineteenth century to make way for sheep.
While the slope below us was steep and boulder-strewn, immediately behind it the land flattens out into a gently undulating landscape dissected by small streams which gather themselves to plunge over the edge of the scarp, these waterfalls only noticeable from the road after heavy rain. The sheep for whom the human inhabitants had to make way are there aplenty.
As we progressed, the abandoned village of Tornamona became visible below us, with the low hill of Torr na Moine behind it. Most of the small houses have gone, but the one steading which continued to be used after the clearances is visible at bottom left in the photograph, surrounded by its stone-walled sheep pens. In the middle distance, just beyond the line of rocky outcrops, lies the much larger cleared village of Bourblaige.
A map of the area is here.
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