Contentment

This is a picture of someone who is very content. Other than the two people he's with, there's probably not another soul for miles. It's a grey September day but it hasn't rained, the prevailing westerly wind isn't too fierce, and it's bringing in air that has been scrubbed clean in its passage across several thousand miles of Atlantic Ocean so the view northwards is crystal clear. Across the Minch are the islands of Eigg, Rhum and the Cuillins of Skye, and in the foreground are the broken ridges which are all that remains of a 60-million year old volcano.

The hill the group has climbed is Creag an Airgid, the silver crag. It's one of the man's favourite places so, over the years, he's spent many hours wandering on and around it because the view in front of him contains layer upon layer of history, including the lost site of a battle and the fields and dwellings of an ancient, cleared village.

He's absorbed in one of his favourite pastimes, taking photographs of the view. Later, when he's home, he'll spend considerable time going through what on a typical walk might be upward of a hundred pictures, and he'll spend more time working on the best of them, editing them until he's satisfied that, within his limited skills, they're as good as he can make them.

He has known this place for twenty years, he thinks he is beginning to understand it, and he feels at home.

Photograph courtesy Rachael.