In the Hills

The Diary spent some time early yesterday evening with a glass of wine in one hand and a telescope glued to its eye, watching HM Coastguard Kilchoan practise its cliff rescue techniques on the hill above the Coastguard station.  They have an assessment coming up in a few weeks.  If they fail it, they'll lose the cliff rescue capability of which they are justifiably proud.  Not all Coastguard teams are cliff teams, and it's not a skill that - fortunately - they often have to use, but a dark night will come when there's a force 10 gale blowing, the rain is coming down like bullets, all helicopters are grounded, and someone is lying at the bottom of a cliff needing urgent medical attention.

It was our turn this morning to be up in the hills, on the sort of brisk two-hour walk that gets ones blood running, but we stopped frequently to admire the heather which glowed in the fast-moving patches of sunlight.

This view of a silver sea is seen from Druim na Gearr Leacainn, the ridge that runs along the back of Ormsaigbeg, looking southwards down the Sound of Mull.  Tobermory lighthouse stands off the nearer headland on Mull, with Tobermory Bay just beyond it.