As the sun rises south of east its rays catch the wild and remote mountains west of Loch Monar, a dammed reservoir at the far western end of glorious Strathfarrar, Inverness-shire, Scotland.
Commentary.
The heart of the North-West Highlands in autumn.
Remote mountains glow in orange iridescence where Loch Monar is dammed for hydro-electric power.
Here is the end of the road.
From this point, only paths wend their way through the wilderness.
Remote.
Quiet.
Distant.
Far from the madding crowd.
Such wild beauty either inspires or inhibits, beneath the slopes of the Munro, Sgurr na Lapaich (out of image, to the left).
Once these slopes were less austere, and were softer, gentler, clothed by a mass of Scots Pine foliage.
Seventeenth Century landowners imported
sheep to replace crofters.
Saplings eaten before maturity led to these bare sunlit slopes.
Damming of many North-West Highland valleys, as here,
changed winding, gorge-like river valleys into a series of man-made, dammed lochs as part of immense Hydro-Electric Power Schemes.
And so, even scenery evolves under the influence of humans, animals and technology.
Fortunately, the scale, grandeur and ancient mountainous framework dismisses such changes with disdain.
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts and this
landscape still glows with glorious splendour.
As the sun rises south of east its rays catch the wild and remote mountains west of Loch Monar, a dammed reservoir at the far western end of glorious Strathfarrar, Inverness-shire, Scotland.
Commentary.
The heart of the North-West Highlands in autumn.
Remote mountains glow in orange iridescence where Loch Monar is dammed for hydro-electric power.
Here is the end of the road.
From this point, only paths wend their way through the wilderness.
Remote.
Quiet.
Distant.
Far from the madding crowd.
Such wild beauty either inspires or inhibits, beneath the slopes of the Munro, Sgurr na Lapaich (out of image, to the left).
Once these slopes were less austere, and were softer, gentler, clothed by a mass of Scots Pine foliage.
Seventeenth Century landowners imported
sheep to replace crofters.
Saplings eaten before maturity led to these bare sunlit slopes.
Damming of many North-West Highland valleys, as here,
changed winding, gorge-like river valleys into a series of man-made, dammed lochs as part of immense Hydro-Electric Power Schemes.
And so, even scenery evolves under the influence of humans, animals and technology.
Fortunately, the scale, grandeur and ancient mountainous framework dismisses such changes with disdain.
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts and this
landscape still glows with glorious splendour.