The Signpost

This signpost stands in the hills beyond our house, at the intersection of two old trackways. From it there are wide views south across Loch Fleet and the Moray Firth towards Easter Ross.

It looks as if it has long belonged there, as if it has stood there for ever but....

....a closer inspection proves that it is of relatively recent origin, with a strange mixture of distances in kilometres and miles - though the latter might be read as metres.

The hills around it used to be wild moorland where a herd of red deer grazed but this is now....

....fenced and mainly coniferous forestry with some token plantings of deciduous trees.

Despite this loss of wilderness, I love being in high places like this, places where the wind blows free and the views are for miles. The trouble is that my energy levels have fallen to the extent that I can now only just reach that signpost before I have to turn back. Gone are the days when we used to walk on far enough to reach open moorland, and to the abandoned clachan of Loch Lunndaidh.