Category Archives: Uncategorized

When I was seven, my family moved into a crumbling old house in a northern industrial town. Though empty for years, my mother fell in love with it. There was no electricity, gas or running water. Outside was a large … Continue reading →

The Highland ponies have departed, the croft looks rather bare but the animals have done a good job trimming rushes and churning the ground in between patches of gorse and alder. Now my neighbour’s sheep have arrived. They graze in … Continue reading →

Beyond the shelter of our garden hedges autumn now rushes in full throttle, filling the gaps left by the departure of a remarkable summer. Dry heat and gentle sea breezes, unusual for the Highlands, provided perfect conditions for paddling, swimming … Continue reading →

It has been raining. Lochs, rivers and peatlands are recharging. Yet the threat of fire is still with us. Large areas of the Northwest Highlands remain at risk from wildfires particularly because the June drying was so intense, the drought-like … Continue reading →

The hills are tinder dry. Peat is crisp underfoot. Sphagnum mounds are bleached and if you pick at one, it crumbles. But cotton grasses are in bloom. They are dancing in the sea breeze almost everywhere. Across the croft the … Continue reading →

The fullness of late spring is upon us. At last, from garden to croft to shore, plant growth is physically discernible. Insects move in cloud-crowds and the flowers that benefit from their presence are in bloom. Burgeoning growth is adding … Continue reading →

Just as January became February thunder and lightning swept through the mountains. A final furious berating by Beira, the Cailleach, Queen of Winter? I very much doubt it. Winters here have a habit of returning in brutal, fast-moving surges, always … Continue reading →

Snow lies on the mountains and until the sun rises over Maol Ruadh, the low dark red-brown hill bordering our valley, they are all pink and purple and dusky rose. On the peaks of Torridon, after a few days of … Continue reading →

There is a point on a journey home when the sense of homecoming is physically palpable and so strong you exhale slowly and deeply because you feel you have in fact already arrived. For me, there is one such place … Continue reading →