It's about three-quarters of an hour's steady climb along the Golspie Tower road and then the Beinn Bhraggie forestry tracks to reach the gate which leads out onto....
....the open moorland where we so love to walk. Today, on a cloudless May morning, we followed this path through land which is now very dry, the heather brittle and the peat crackling underfoot as if it's waiting to catch fire.
There are now, at last, signs of oncoming summer, with the blaeberries coming into flower and....
....plenty of insects, including numerous tiger beetles. It's certainly not called a tiger beetle because of its colour but it is, like its namesake, a ferocious and fast hunter, catching spiders, ants and caterpillars by chasing them across the ground.
There are plenty of these around too. Previously, we've only seen occasional, lone specimens of the green hairstreak but today they were everywhere, and a joy to watch.
We walked to the viewpoint at the end of the path and stood for some minutes in the warm sunshine looking out across the glen of the Golspie Burn towards Ben Horn. Beyond is the big Kilbraur wind farm and beyond it the hills of central Sutherland with evidence that winter is reluctant to loosen its grip.
On our way back we lingered to listen to two cuckoos calling in the coniferous forestry, and to watch a buzzard wheeling high above us. Just inside the forestry we stopped again when a roe deer burst across the track and, further down....
....to admire the first ladybird of the year even though it was 'only' the common seven-spot variety.
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