Scotland mostly - through nsl4u

A lovely walk from Loch Morar-side over to Loch Nevis, and Stoul, an
abandoned old crofting community......
A good day with changing light and the fun of 'the stepping stones'.

There is a sad atmosphere at these old crofts and sheilings, when there is
the (most likely) connection to the Highland Clearances and those times
still wrankle deeply with true locals.
Old wounds that cut deeply with great personal deprivation due to
land-owners deciding that their estates could make good money from sheep
flocks rather than their miserable tenanted crofting communities.

The sheep stir emotions now still, just as do the more recent deer herds do,
in terms of the changed landscapes they have determined by their grazing
patterns.

Make no mistake though the crofting life was ever hard and it was pure
subsistence, living on the knife edge of nature's changing moods. Ultimately
for too many, the hard work of relatively meagre 'quality' land and fishing
rights, lost it's viability and even now no-one can make a straightforward
'old-fashioned' croft style of work pay. Modern crofters have turned their
hands to alternative and complimentary way or eking a living, balancing the
different (and some would say) calmer lifestyle with 'disposable income'
...the other side of the 'rat race'..?

Cheers, Denis.