When we set off to climb
Beinn na Seilg this morning, the weather was a grey with a light but chill northeaster blowing. The heather on the slopes of
Druim na Gearr Leacainn behind Ormsaigbeg is still in flower, but a little sunshine would have made the display even more impressive.
By contrast, the summit of
Beinn na Seilg is a bleak place. Earlier in the summer it was relieved by a few hardly orchids, but these are long gone, and little grows there now except deer grass, moss and lichens. But, if
Bein na Seilg is bleak....
....the great lump of a hill immediately to its north - un-named on the OS map so, until someone tells us its local name, we call it
Beinn na Seilg 2 - is even bleaker. Yet, as we scrambled down the little glen that separates the two summits, we came across....
....this blaze of colour tucked against a great spine of rock. Nature planted this garden but, had it been a human, they would have been justifiably proud of their handiwork. And it didn't stop. As we followed the glen down....
....the cascade of colour continued, made special towards the bottom of the slope when we found....
....the first white heather of the year. This is ling,
Calluna vulgaris,
fraoch in Gaelic, the most common of the heather family and the one that has given us this year's tremendous display.
No comments:
Post a Comment