Meall nam Fiasgan - 1

This picture was taken from a hill called Meall nam Fiasgan, just to the southeast of Fascadale, looking back towards the three houses that now comprise Fascadale settlement.  All are letting houses, available to rent from Ardnamurchan Estate.  Of them, the ones in the centre and the left were original dwelling houses which have been refurbished; the one on the right was a bothy.

Beyond them is Fascadale Bay.  The name is Norse, aska being ship and dahl a dale, so there can be no doubt that the Vikings used the bay.  It suggests that they might have had a small, permanent settlement here and tilled some of the fields.

We left the car in the car part visible in the top picture, and walked to a gate in the wire which now runs along the road in order to access the lower slopes of the hill.  Once onto its slopes, looking back, we could see that the inhabitants of the village who followed the Vikings worked the land intensively.  This picture looks down on flat land, part of an old wave-cut platform, just to the east of the settlement.  Land divisions and drainage systems are clearly visible.  In fact, the amount of land that was worked indicates that there was once a considerable population here.

As we climbed Meall nam Fiasgan the view opened to the east.  In the foreground is Achateny Bay which has a white sand beach, one that's not often visited.  The deeper bay beyond is Kilmory Bay.  The two headlands in the further distance are Ockle Point and Rubha Aird Druimnich.

Meall nam Fiasgan continues to rise until it becomes part of the extended ridge of Cathair Mhic Dhiarmaid, MacDiarmid's Seat - though Cathair can also suggest a fortified place.  The ridge overlooks the small village of Branault.  The fields on the far side of the valley, once worked as part of Branault when it was a crofting community, are increasingly encroached upon by bracken and heather.

Continuing higher along the ridge we came to this dip in the land.  Look carefully, because the rectangle of flattish land this side of the heather bank has obviously been worked.  It's a very neat field, surrounded by ditches, with another ditch running down the middle.

This is at about 300m, on a northwest-southeast running, exposed ridgeline, on thin, peaty soil, far from any settlement and the coast which, traditionally, supplied the seaweed fertilizer.  What drove someone to work such high, marginal land?  Where did they live?  What did they try to grow?  So many questions....