Carolina Hill Skeabost

Grey Granite and Rufus walked from the cemetery car park  at Carolina Hill, Skeabost up the track for a couple of miles. This was an enjoyable walk which would eventually have led us on to the Portree to Bracadale road.There were splendid views and shifting cloud shadows,  below us the River Snizort wound across the flat land at the head of Loch Snizort, ahead open views over the river valley to Glengrasco and Ben Grasco. The track gradually climbs, passing an area of felled trees on the left before eventually reaching a larger coniferous wooded area, also in the process of being felled. There are intriguing ruins of a settlement on the hillside between the two woods.

The track gives good views over Loch Snizort Beag.

The River Snizort meanders into the loch  in  a series of wide loops, this morning there were a several fishermen in the river which has a good salmon population.

About 1 mile up the track we came upon ruins. From the track these seemed to be a sheep fold but behind and adjoining the low walls of the fold were the remains of smaller enclosures, one of which had a fireplace and all of which may have been roofed. The buildings had distinctive rounded corners.

Maidenhair spleenwort growing on the walls

From the wood there was a panoramic view towards Trotternish. A small flock of ravens, making their distinctive 'tock' call and a mewling buzzard were circling above the trees.

Romesdal to Kingsburgh- Ragnarok

During a break in the torrential Skye rain, Grey Granite and Rufus were fortunate to snatch a walk. We followed an old section of the A87 towards the Kingsburgh road junction. The abandoned stretch of road is gradually being reclaimed by the wild. Vegetation from ditches and verge is encroaching the tar, there is a pungent small of heather, peat, myrtle and, near the grazing sheep, lanolin. The rocky crag on the centre right at the end of the road is a prehistoric fort.

The view from the junction of the Kingsburgh road and the A7 to Portree, the old road we followed is seen on the left. We disturbed four indignant geese, early migrants, resting in this field when I took the picture.

Approaching Kingsburgh,  the track to Romesdal runs behind the ruin on the left, ascending steeply and dubbily until it levels out on the moor.

The track back to Romesdal ran parallel to the main road, at times resembling a burn, but giving superb views over the loch. Charles Edward Stewart spent the night  of 29th June 1745 at Kingsburgh House, the home of Flora MacDonald's kinswoman Lady Margaret MacDonald, before fleeing by 'every byway' to Portree. There he was reunited with Flora who had travelled there by road. It seems probable that one of them used this track to leave Kingsburgh.

The view from Cnoc Dun.The moorland heather is studded with small flowers including bog asphodel, thyme, tormentil, field scabious and heathers. Harebells seem to be curiously absent.

Grey Granite has been reading A.S.Byatt's totally absorbing and mesmerising 'Ragnarok', a lyrical retelling of the Norse myth of the destruction of the gods and end of the world. Byattt  weaves a memoir of her wartime childhood round the myths and relates them to contemporary destruction and discord. The 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the louring  clouds and craggy landscape of Skye give the story added significance.