Benches

There was a time in the history of the many miles we've walked over our years in the highlands of Scotland when the location of a bench had no importance to us.  We did notice, however, that benches were most common close to car parks, as if they were there to cater for the typical visitor to the countryside whose average walk extends no more than a hundred metres from their car, and were of no interest to us because, if we wanted a rest during one of the long walks we we used to take, we simply found a convenient rock or tussock to sit on.

How times have changed. Now we value benches as vital places to rest our old bones, though we still prefer them if they are in locations where few people disturb us.

The two in the picture above are typical. They look our over the busy A9 to Golspie golf course, the beach and the sea. They're just off a path....

....put in by Highland Council when they were developing the site for housing to connect the village with the Council offices. Because few people actually walk to these offices the path is little used, those who do use it being rare folks like us who have a house on the development and walk in to the village. So, for example, we use it to go shopping when the paths in the woods are unsafe after rain.

Why the Council left this strip of land between the housing development and the A9 is a bit of a mystery. I would have expected them to use it for more housing, but leave it they did and, very commendably, they've allowed it to turn into a wild meadow populated by grasses, oxeye daisies, thistles, fireweed, northern marsh orchids and a rare stand of cowslips - though I suspect these were deliberately introduced.

The meadow should be a wildlife haven but it's surprisingly thin on both birds and insects. As the benches are fairly close to our house, but a good distance for me to walk during my ankle's recuperation, I've spend quite a bit of time sitting on them, watching the steady flow of traffic and hoping to spot butterflies. So far I've seen a half dozen or so, and all of one species, which I have tentatively identified as small whites.

So I sit on this bench, watch the world go by, and bless the Council for putting it there; they even planted two apple trees beside it. These days, Councils are so hard-pressed for money that they probably never consider putting in luxuries like benches, let alone trees. And while they do strim the margins of the path they no longer bother with the hard standing where the benches are.

The last time I sat on it, for about half-an-hour, not a soul passed along the path. It sounds very anti-social, but that suited me fine.