Queen of Scottish mountains

Being retired, DH and I usually find that bank holidays pass us by almost un-noticed, except for the lack of postal delivery or the fact that the village shop is closed. This morning, however, when I drew back the bedroom curtains to see yet another gloriously sunny and cloudless morning, we decided that we really ought to mark the bank holiday by doing one of our favourite walks.

Directly opposite where we are staying is a promontory separating a pretty little river from the wide and beautiful Kyle of Tongue. On the tip of the promontory are the ruins of what was probably a fortified watch-tower, known as Castle Varich, which looks out over the Kyle and the sea beyond. As we walked down the slope from the village, before crossing the river and climbing the steep and winding path to the castle, I looked left and was again overwhelmed by the beauty and grandeur of the mountain which dominates the skyline to the south.

The mountain is Ben Loyal, at 764 m (2506 ft) by no means one of the highest of the Scottish mountains, but surely one of its most dramatic and beautiful, fully deserving its title of The Queen of Scottish Mountains.

From sea-level, as one crosses the causeway across the Kyle and looks south, the panorama created by Ben Loyal and the Kyle takes our breath away every time, even though we have yet to take a photo of it which even partly satisfies us.

What is so endlessly fascinating about Ben Loyal is the way it changes through the day and through the seasons, as the light varies or the weather or even, I think sometimes, our mood as we look at it.

Last autumn we were here when winter arrived so early and so harshly that everyone was taken by surprise, and the sight of Ben Loyal, with every crag and gully outlined in snow was breathtaking. In previous years we have seen it still snow-clad as late as April, whereas this year spring was so early and so glorious that I was glimpsing it through the fruit blossom in the garden every time I went out to hang the washing on the line.

There is something about living, even if only for a few weeks at a time, in a small bungalow close to such a distinctively strong and beautiful mountain, that is good for the soul. One’s petty concerns are put into perspective and one realises, at least for a little while, that most of the things we think are so important are nothing of the kind. 

For me Ben Loyal, especially seen in the setting of the Kyle of Tongue,  always brings to mind the opening lines from Gerard Manley-Hopkins’s poem, God’s Grandeur:

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness.....

I would be fascinated to hear which places do this for you.