Loch Treig

On our recent visit to beautiful, if rather damp Lochaber we walked along the western shore of Loch Treig. We've seen this loch many times before as the West Highland Railway, which we have often used as it connects Fort William to Glasgow and Euston, runs along the length of its eastern shore - the line can be seen in this photo cutting through the trees on the far side of its waters.

In 1929, as part of the Lochaber hydro-electric scheme, the loch was deepened by building a dam at its northern end, its water then used to supply the power for Fort William and its aluminium smelting works.

There was a price to pay: the rising waters submerged the hamlets of Kinlochtreig and Creaguaineach at the loch's southern end, the West Highland Line had to be diverted, and an ancient drovers' road was lost. The scheme had a long-term effect as water was also taken from many local streams so they now run with much lower volumes; the Spean has suffered from this.

It was a beautiful walk through much softer countryside than the previous day's hike along the River Roy, and for the occasional moment the sun even appeared; and we found far more wildflowers in bloom. While along the Roy we found only lousewort, along the banks of Loch Treig we also found....

....eggs-and-bacon, milkwort and butterwort (above).

Only on our last morning in Lochaber did the weather finally relent, reminding us of the pellucid sunlight that is so typical of Scotland's west coast. This view of the Grey Corries was taken from our hotel's car park just before we set off home.

Purple & Yellow

Despite this morning's dismal weather, we took a walk along the sands at Littleferry, with the tide coming in and very little to be seen along the shoreline - some gulls, a single oystercatcher, a few moon jellyfish, and, the one bird in any quantity....

....two dozen sanderlings so busy feeding that they allowed us very close before....

....flying out to sea and then coming round to land a little way further in front of us.

We returned to the car across the links, where the main object. of our visit was to see if any orchids were in bloom. Littleferry is a wonderful place for northern marsh orchids, and they should have been out in quantity by now, but all we could find was....

....this fine specimen and one other.

This was disappointing but the other wildflowers made up for it, in particular....

....the brilliant purples of the wild thyme which, along with the bright yellows of the eggs-and-bacon plants, seemed to be enjoying a good year.

Tsuro

We were pleased - and somewhat relieved - to find Tsuro mowing the lawn when we arrived back from Lochaber, particularly as the man who maintains it with his very noisy strimmer had visited while we were on holiday, an event which we had rather feared might drive Tsuro away.

Imagine then our distress when, on Tuesday afternoon, we found....

....a small body laid out on our garden terrace.

We're not 100% certain that it was Tsuro, nor could we work out how the rabbit died, as there was no sign of wounds or of disease. We have had myxomatosis in the area before but rabbits which die from that horrible disease tend to have weepy eyes, and this little corpse look remarkably healthy.

We gave him a decent burial in a place where his nutrients will, in due course, benefit the garden which he so much enjoyed; and, while we're hoping that this wasn't Tsuro and that he'll suddenly reappear, we're also on the lookout for a small rabbit to take his place.

Braeroy

The track along the River Roy which we followed on Saturday passes through this stand of trees which hides the main buildings of the Braeroy Estate which, these days, offers hunting, shooting and fishing in this....

 forbidding landscape.

The building which particularly interested us is at left in the above photo, quite separate from the main buildings of the estate. There is a footbridge nearby so it is accessible from both sides of the River Roy.

On three sides it has no windows or doors and on the fourth, which faces southeast, there are two small skylights, a window and a door. Within....

....the building is these days used for storage.

We were told that it was a school house. At first I struggled to believe this thinking that, in this wild place, there would hardly have been the pupils to justify it. However, there were times when the population of the estate would have been far larger, when the 'big house', its farm, and the sporting opportunities would have offered plenty of employment - so the children of these workers would need education.

Then there were....

....the many small tenanted farmers who would also have had children needing education. In any case, the education authority was obliged to offer a place to every pupil in its area, although some pupils had to walk many miles each day to reach their school..

We have seen similar school buildings before - a good example is the school at Achosnich on Ardnamurchan, which also served Sanna and Achnaha. However, it had a facility which many remote schools had and which this one seems to lack and which was 'normal' across most of the highlands - a school house for the teacher.

I am intrigued by other questions: why are there so few windows? One would have though that, in this dark place, the pupils would have benefited from as much natural light as possible. But.... perhaps windows are cold, and perhaps the children brought a candle with them to school each day. And that teacher's house - where did the teacher stay?

First Orchids

I had hoped we would find the year's first wild orchid during our visit to Lochaber but we were disappointed, so imagine my surprise this morning, on a walk up one of the forestry tracks at the back of our house, on a truly beautiful morning, when....

....I stumbled across this, a heath spotted orchid, growing in the middle of the track. The specimen was a bit stunted, perhaps reflecting the fact that it was largely growing in gravel, but I was - as I am every year with the first orchid - thrilled.

Then, a little further along the track, I came across two more. My cup truly ran over, particularly as one of them....

....was an absolute beauty.

This particular track becomes a rough path after a mile so, anxious to return home to look at and edit my pictures of the orchids, I turned back and, in that moment, disturbed four red deer, two adult females and two of what were probably last year's young, this in an area where we haven't seen red deer in some time following their being shot out when the area was put down to trees.

I diverted slightly on my way back home to look for the year's first dragon- or damselflies, and found none, instead tripping over more orchids, three this time, all....

....northern marsh orchids.

As I neared home a red kite circled above me. Lochaber needs to look to its laurels: on our weekend visit we didn't see a single raptor.

Lochaber

We've just returned from a long weekend spent in Lochaber, one of my favourite parts of Scotland. It's a land of high mountains - Ben Nevis is in Lochaber - steep hillsides, rushing burns, wooded glens and silent lochs. It's also an area which has its own weather: while much of Britain sweated under Mediterranean temperatures, I found myself so chilled during our walk on Saturday that I had to borrow a ladies' puffer jacket to survive.

If I love Lochaber, the Roy river glen is particularly special. We spent Saturday morning walking up a section of it, meeting only two people. There were far more....

....red deer than humans. This stag is 'in velvet' - growing new antlers....

 ....although most of the deer wisely chose to stay high up on the ridges on either side of the glen.

Empty of humans the Roy glen may be, yet it has an international reputation. I had heard of the Roy long before I felt any great attachment to Scotland as it features in many physical geography and geology text books for....

....its 'parallel roads', lines running along the sides of the glen, seen in this picture along the hill face to the left. These are fossil beaches, left by a loch formed when the glen was dammed and then flooded during one of the last glacial periods.

So when I was a geology undergraduate I learned about the parallel roads from this tome, 'Principles of Physical Geology' by the great Arthur Holmes. It was such a special book that I asked my parents if they would purchase me a copy, which they did.  Sadly, at some point in one of our many moves, I was separated from it.

Butterflies

At this time of year, with the weather here changing by the minute, it only takes a little sun and the temperature rising above about 15C for several species of butterfly to start to appear; and the opposite, for if the temperature drops below 15C they as suddenly disappear.

So, for example, on Wednesday when I went out at about nine in the morning the sun was out and the air temperature a balmy 17C....

....and a variety of butterflies were on the wing, including a tortoiseshell, a small copper, several whites, and....

....a male orange tip; but by lunchtime the air temperature had dropped suddenly, to a mere 13C, and there wasn't a butterfly to be seen.

I suppose that the butterflies which survive around here must have adapted to the vagaries of this climate.

There is, however, one species which seems to be different: the speckled wood. This butterfly can be in the air with the temperature relatively low - but only on condition that the sun is out.