Wilderness Walk

Our walk this morning took us to the area between the Sanna and Portuairk roads - see map here.  We started from the Sanna road in light drizzle, which cleared to leave a grey overcast and a biting north wind.  Having parked the car just short of Creag an Airgid, the silver crag, we walked west into bleak and, in places, boggy moorland.  By this time of year most of the grass is dead, with only the occasional patch of sheep-cropped grazing showing green.

From the first knoll we looked across to Lochan an Crannaig, named for the crannog seen on the nearer side.  Beyond stands the great lump of Beinn na Seilg and its un-named sister hill.

Within minutes of leaving the road all trace of human works disappeared, and we felt we were walking in true wilderness, empty of most life, a place of rocky outcrops and dead vegetation.  All around we were hemmed in by high land - this picture, looking north, shows the great ridge of Beinn na h-Imeilte.  This is our favourite walking, where the only reference points are natural features such as peaks and burns, in a place where to feel lost is a pleasure.

As we climbed higher we could see through the gap to the south to some of the houses in Ormsaigmore and beyond to the Sound of Mull and Tobermory.  In the distance, Beinn Talaidh was capped with snow.

We worked our way up to a pass through the Beinn na h-Imeilte ridge, from where the view to the north opened before us.  In the centre of the picture is the small settlement of Achnaha, and beyond it the islands of Rum, to the left, and Eigg.  The distant mountains of Skye, just visible amongst low cloud, were white with snow.

To our left the ridge of Beinn na h-Imeilte ran away in an arc towards Sanna.  The burn which drains the valley is a tributary of the Allt Sanna, flowing under the bridge on the road beyond Achnaha.  It was this burn which flooded the road last Monday.

The only life we saw on our walk were two red deer stags, three pigeons, a number of drab pipits, and some sheep in the distant Kilchoan common grazings, and the only frustration we felt was that the poor light meant the photographs hardly do justice to this beautiful wilderness.