Glendrian in the Rain

The weather is all over the place at the moment. After last week's snow and a couple of days when we've seen some sun, today we're back to a spell of rain, brought on by a southeasterly gale which has caused several of the ferry sailings to the Outer Hebrides to be cancelled. Our cunning plan was to walk to Glendrian, following the glen of the Allt Uamha na Muice on our way there, and thus keeping in the lee of Creag an Airgid, and coming back along the Estate track in the lee of Druim Liath.

So our first view of Glendrian was a distant one. The village, abandoned in 1941 and now a scheduled monument, lies at the top of the grassy slope in the middle distance, the hills beyond being Meall Clach an Daraich, left, and Sgurr nan Gobhar.

When the snow melted all these burns were rushing torrents but now they're down and easy to cross. The moorlands show little sign of waking up to spring. The coarse grass is still dead, and the heather shows only a few green shoots. Most of the wildflowers that have dared to appear are in the sheltered areas - violets, primroses and celandines predominate, with a few wood anemones - while the only flowers in the more exposed areas are lousewort.

We circled round so we came at Glendrian from the east. This is one of the best views of the township, looking across the wide glen of the Allt Uamha na Muice towards Meall Sanna - some of the houses of Sanna are just visible in the murk to the right of the hill.

We walked cautiously through the settlement as it is full of new-born lambs and worried mothers, dropping down to the start of the track and crossing the ford by the stepping stones, above which is this pool fed by a small waterfall.

On our way back, with the rain increasing, we came across this sorry collection of feathers. There was no sign of a body, but the remains suggest that a raptor has come to a violent end.