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Location: Central Scotland
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 1,376
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Lord of all I survey
Blame Lg with his reference to Gods own Country
Another of oh's wee scribblings
It's a long hard climb to the top each ridge fooling you into thinking you have arrived ,only to get another appear ahead
Eventually you breast a ridge and there is the Lochan,a solitary widgeon taking flight as you approach you wonder what attracted it to this high altitude,it's now a case of a scramble up a short scree slope and your finally there
Lay back and catch your breath before taking in the vista this is my favourite place especially on a fine day at this time of year, when the autumnal light has a clarity that you seldom see at other times
Colour might not be the first thing you would think of on a scottish hillside but at this time of year there are a myriad of colours to please the eye
The deer grass is already turning to orange,the bloom on the heather is all but over ,but there are still patches of purple and here and there splashes of scarlet where the leaves of the blaeberry have been touched by frost
Far below the birch on the burnside are golden unlike the ones on the low ground which are still green,and a single Rowan tree it's leaves now a bright red in contrast with the grey of the rock it stands in front of
A couple of yards distant a small bachelor herd of stags contentedly chewing the cud their coats glowing a rich chestnut in the late summer sunshine ,no sign yet of the aggression toward each other that will appear in the weeks to come
Along the lower slopes of the hill the bracken has taken on a multi coloured look green,yellow,and red ,from a pale tinge to a deep russet
Beyond the bracken a band of magenta this is rosebay willow herb or fire weed as it is more commonly known This band of colour marks the railway line .Fire weed as its name implies often grows where there have been fires in the past and is common on railway embankments harking back to the days of steam and sparks from the engine
This was the line used by the Caledonian Sleeper unofficially known as the deerstalker's express ,linking London Euston and Fort William which allowed members of the gentry to hop on the sleeper at Euston on arrivie early in the morning at one of the stations along the line fresh and ready for a days stalking on an estate of their choosing
Further still many specks of colour can be seen a look through the binoculars confirm that it's people and the specks of colour that you saw were the jackets and backpacks of walkers on the military road now part of the West Highland Way a walk that begins at Milingavie near Glasgow and ends in Fort William a total of 96miles
Down the Glen one can see the ruins of a building this was once the home of Duncan ban MacIntyre an 18thcentury poet Duncan was to the highlands what Burns was to the lowlands his poems and songs were famous enough for him to go on tour and he was treated much like a modern day rock star
I have so far only mentioned the immediate view where I sit is close to being the centre of Scotland and commands vast views
To the north Rannoch Moor and to the mountains of Glencoe,in the west Loch Etive and in the far distance the Isle of Mull , to the east Shiehallion and beyond,on a clear day it's possible to make out the east coast and the North Sea,to the south on a day like today Arthur's Seat at Edinburgh
Even if it is but for brief moment in time on a day like today I am indeed Lord Of all I Survey