CHAPTER V 



ARDNAMURCHAN 



JUTTING out into the Atlantic there stands, far removed from 

 civilization, a wild headland. Many ships have passed it 

 by on the sea, and their crews, maybe, have looked curi- 

 ously at the grandeur and strength of its outline, but few 

 persons have ever set foot upon its rough weather-beaten 

 surface. On its cliffs the golden eagle has its home, and 

 in former times the erne or sea eagle was wont to nest 

 on its inaccessible ledges. On quiet days of early spring 

 ravens sail and tumble above its rocks, and one may hear 

 the shrill, mournful cry of the buzzard as she leaves her 

 eyrie. Near by is the haunt of the wild cat, now a fast 

 vanishing species in the Highlands, and as early as 

 February she has been known to produce her young in 

 the rocky cairns above the reach of the waves. 



It is, I think, on the wildest of winter days that the 

 grandeur of the headland is most apparent. Is not its 

 very name Ardnamor-chuan "The Point of the Ocean"? 

 And indeed, the sea which thunders on its rocks at tide- 

 level rocks worn smooth by centuries of hammering is 

 sometimes tremendous. Due westwards the long and nar- 

 row island of Coll does little to break the great strength 

 of the Atlantic rollers, while north of west, except perhaps 

 Barra Head, there is no land between the rocks and 

 America. 



The tide runs fast past the point, and when the ebb of the 

 "springs" sets in southwards against a full gale of south- 

 west wind the spray of the breakers is carried far over the 

 highest point of the rocks, and the deep booming roar 

 can be heard even on the Island of Mull. 



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