Rare Moonbow over Ben Hiant

Moonbows are rare but this one formed this morning, just before six thirty, as the waning full moon set in the west and a shower of rain scattered the light so a lunar rainbow formed over Ben Hiant.

To the human eye the moonbow appears white but the camera picks out the spectrum. They're rare because, being so faint, they often pass unnoticed. Formed by sunlight reflected off the moon, this one was surprisingly bright and, moments before this picture was taken, made a complete arc across the eastern sky.

Christmas Walking

The eagles have been active over Christmas. This golden eagle was soaring over Ormsaigbeg when we walked on Christmas morning, and we had fine views of a pair of sea eagles this morning as they circled in front of the house. Perhaps the activity follows the gales of the pre-Christmas period, when these raptors must have considerable problems getting into the air to hunt.

We needed a good walk on Boxing Day so drove back along the road to the point where the track leads up to the wind turbine on Beinn Bhuidhe (see map at bottom of this post), leaving the car there and walking along the top of the steep slope that drops down to the area in this view, called 'The Basin'. Judging by the ditches and occasional ruined houses, this low land was once drained and extensively worked as arable land, but evidence....

....of human habitation of the higher land is more difficult to spot. This picture looks back towards the top of The Basin, and in the foreground can be seen an old stone wall which meandesr across country and once contained an area of what must have been poor arable land. The land is now grazed by Ardnamurchan Estate sheep but is also home....

....to large herds of red deer, of which we must have seen about a hundred in the course of our walk. This picture shows part of a mixed group of stags and hinds with two of the stags sparring. They hadn't seen us, but when they did it was, as usual, the stags which ran off fastest.

The walk takes one all along the crest of the scarp which looks down onto the road, with Camas nan Geall coming steadily into sight, but looking straight across the road....

....one has good views of the clachan of Tornamona or Torr na Moine, cleared in 1828 to make way for sheep. In the centre of the picture, on the other side of the glen, is a large sheep enclosure or 'fank' built soon after the clearance. The remains of the houses of Tornamona are more difficult to distinguish - mostly because the rocks of which they were built went into the construction of the fank - but some are visible both to right and left of it.

We walked until we looked straight down into Camas nan Geall, and then on to the end of the scarp where there is another fank which, presumably, was used for those sheep which grazed the area around Beinn Bhuidhe. The view beyond is of Loch Sunart running away to top left, and of the island of Oronsay to the right, with the much smaller Loch Teacuis beyond it.

We walked back over the top of the moorland around Beinn Bhuidhe, passing under the wind turbine and then back to the car along the track, stopping off a moment to look northwest, across Loch Mudle to Eigg. Christmas and Boxing Day have been grey but dry, but the walk was dominated by an unusual easterly which was both brisk and cold, so we were pleased to be back in the car and on our way home to a large bowl of soup.

An interactive version of this map is at Streetmap, here.

Seasons Greetings

Photo of aurora courtesy Ben McKeown. Taken in October, the picture looks westwards along the north coast, across Achateny to Fascadale, with Muck away to the right.

A Wet Walk to Plocaig

After a wild night, with gusts in the late evening which shook the house, the winds had dropped by this morning, giving us a chance to get out into the hills. We left the car at Sanna and, despite a heavy downpour which included sleet and slushy snow, crossed the footbridge over the Sanna Burn and walked eastwards along the ridge. This picture looks over the abandoned buildings of Plocaig and the bank-full Sanna Burn towards the hills on the far side of the ring dyke, their peaks dusted with snow
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Dropping down the north side of the ridge, we looked across the bay to the steep face of Carraig. After the storms of the last few days the sea was surprisingly calm, with a steady swell coming in from the west.

We then walked across the hill to Plocaig, wandering between the buildings and imagining what it must have been like living there in weather like this. In the background is the crofting township of Achnaha.

By this afternoon the wind had risen again, and we have another gale forecast for this evening.

More, and More Storms

The Raasay is seen arriving at few minutes late at Kilchoan pier on this morning's 11.00am run from Tobermory. According to the CalMac website, every ferry is disrupted except the Mallaig-Lochboisedale.

The cargo ship Wilson Flushing has been anchored just to the northwest of Rubha nan Gall lighthouse since just before three this morning, perhaps waiting for better weather or with some sort of problem.

The strong southwesterly airstream has now started to bring in heavy showers, often of hail, with accompanying thunder and lightning. There were some impressive strikes yesterday afternoon, but we finally lost power some time around three this morning in a lightning strike which destroyed routers and cut telephone links to houses in Glenborrodale.  The power came back on fairly quickly, but more gales are forecast for early evening and overnight.