A Walk by Loch Brora

We drove to the crofting community of Doll this morning to walk along the western side of Loch Brora, parking just up from the ford and following....

....the track through Sutherland Estate forestry to be confronted by....

....a notice which.... welcomes walkers. How heartening, for we are recently returned from an England where discouraging walkers is the order of the day for landowners.

The track leads out through a gate - which has a kissing gate for walkers - onto the open moor where the ling is now at its best.

Just up from the track - see map at top - there is a well-preserved hut circle. This picture looks in to it from what may well have been the doorway, but what struck us was that this dwelling was sited conspicuously on a small knoll, suggesting that the peoples who built it did not feel the need to hide from attack, but also that....

....they, like us today, enjoyed a good view from their veranda.

A little further on we climbed the hill to visit a broch, marked with a red arrow on the map, whose walls were....

....beautifully picked out by the flowers of the ling, the centre of the building being filled with bracken.

In one place the void between the outer and inner walls of the broch was clearly visible.

Although the broch may have been on a knoll for defensive purposes it also gave its inhabitants a fine view across Loch Brora.