Backies

We set off this morning up the Big Burn - previous post here - with the intention of climbing the hill on its far side into the area of the old township of Backies, passing on our way the Golspie Mill buildings. The mill was built in 1863 by the Sutherland Estate to grind flour for the area and I had rather assumed it had fallen into disuse but was surprised to find it is working, having been bought and refurbished in 1992. It now produces an interesting range of flours - link to the Mill's website here - and is powered using water from the burn.

We followed the paths along the Golspie Burn then cut upwards through the deciduous forestry, admiring....

 ....an interesting selection of fungi and seeing....

....more tits than we've seen in years. In one place we stood and watched blue, great and long-tailed tits, frustrated that the dull light made photographing them so difficult.

Many but not all of Backies' scattered croft houses which replaced the small township when it was cleared in the early 19th century have been refurbished and brought back into use, and many of these houses have....

....enviable views southeastward across the Moray Firth and to the hills behind Loch Fleet (right).

We came back by a different route through the glen, one which took us past Golspie's skating pond. It would be interesting to know when the ice was last thick enough for anyone to use it. So far this winter I would doubt whether it has been covered by much more than a thin skin of ice. It's this sort of local evidence of the climate's warming trend which brings home so graphically the changes that are taking place.