Ben More Mull 



At every season of the year Ben More has its own 

 individual charm; but I think the hill is at its best on a 

 sunny day of mid June, when all Nature is pulsating with 

 life after a long and severe spring — and hereabouts the 

 spring is late in setting its mark on the land — and when 

 the air is of that wonderful clearness that one sees only 

 when the summer is young. On one such day, early of 

 the morning, I made my way through Glen More. The 

 river was so low that scarce a trickle of waiter made 

 its way seaward, but in a deep pool a large salmon lay 

 waiting for the spate that would carry him to the upper 

 reaches. Already the young of the dippers which frequent 

 the burn had left the nest, but ring ouzels still tended their 

 broods, and from the single telegraph line that traverses 

 the glen, stonechats perched, scolding roundly as their 

 nesting-ground was passed. No bird is more cunning 

 than the stonechat in concealing the whereabouts of its nest, 

 and I have had many patient vigils without discovering 

 the site of the eggs or young. Standing perched on the 

 stems of the fragrant bog myrtle, whinchats called anxiously. 

 They too had their nests, but unlike the stonechats, which 

 had thriving broods to care for, were still sitting on their 

 eggs of pale unspotted blue. 



When within half a mile of Loch Scridain, I turned 

 from the road and made for the summit of Ben More, 

 which stood, no more than three miles away, distinct in 

 the clear sunlight. A few pairs of curlew tended their 

 young on the lower slopes of the hill, but they were soon 

 passed, and save for the occasional chirruping of a meadow 

 pipit, or the "chack" of a wheatear, the hill was in 

 silence. Away ahead one could see, outlined against the 

 deep blue of the sky, many stags, and, on a different part 

 of the hill and keeping separate from them, hinds and their 

 young dappled calves were seeking out the cool breezes, 

 or were sheltering behind rocks from the strong heat of 

 the sun. On the rocks near the summit cairn an eagle sat 



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