Creag an Airgid

In yesterday;s glorious weather, while some people surfed at Sanna we walked up into one of our favourite areas, the wild land along the crest of the ring dykes to the east of Creag an Airgid. Being almost in the centre of the peninsula, it gives one great views both south towards the Sound of Mull and....

....north across the Minches. While the snow line didn't come down to Eigg, the distant mountains of Skye had had a heavy fall.

This picture, taken from beside the carefully-constructed cairn at the summit of Creag an Airgid, looks northwestwards across the tiny crofting community of Achnaha to the opposite side of the ring dykes, with Meall Sanna the highest peak. The air was so clear that the summits of the hills on the Outer Hebrides were clearly visible along the horizon.

As we walked along the ridge we looked down onto the abandoned crofting community of Glendrian, now a scheduled national monument, with the grass of the once-worked inbye land now cropped by Ardnamurchan Estate sheep.

In such fine weather, the Raptor was also out and about. He walked from Kilchoan along the Portuairk road, then turned off on the track to the old Achosnich school house before following the schoolchildren's track through Bealach Ruadh to Achnaha. His first picture shows the snow on the hills to the east of Ardnamurchan.

Like us, he noticed how little there was in the way of wildlife. We saw nothing more than a couple of hoodies and a woodcock, but he did snap this male grey wagtail. Of it, he says, "It's not entirely unusual to see them late in the year but they do tend to leave their upland summer habitats and move south for the winter. This one obviously missed his flight and decided to hang on for a few days longer."

Which was definitely a mistake if the wagtail thought that the fine weather was going to continue. Since eight this morning we've had some 18mm of truly miserable rain. The Ormsaigbeg road was flooded in three places - picture shows it by Craigard Croft.

Many thanks to the Raptor for his pictures.