Forsinard

To complete the account of my summer Scottish trip... From Duncansby Head I drove the east-coast road south to Wick, and then on to Helmsdale. I camped by the sea at Lothbeg. The next day, my last day in Scotland, I temporarily headed north once again, following the Helmsdale river as far as the RSPB Nature Reserve at Forsinard. I'd hoped to catch a glimpse of the rare red-throated diver, but didn't - though saw lots of skylarks and meadow pipits, hawker dragonflies, and plants like sphagnum moss and sundew, bogbean, bog asphodel and bog myrtle (which has a peppery, aromatic scent). You can see all these plants in the photos below...

I walked the short, flagstoned Dubh Lochan Trail, and then the 4 mile circular Forsinain Trail. Blanket bog stretched out as far as the eye could see. This peatland habitat has barely changed in the last 6000 years...