Pretty dreadful weather today, with strong winds blowing in a lot of rain. Visibility barely 1 mile, although the sun is trying to put in an appearance. Mercury is at 9C / 48F, and the wind is blowing a near-gale (35 mph) with gusts of nearly 50 mph.
Hebridean blogger Donnie, who specialises in black and white images of the western islands of Scotland, posted a very evocative image. Boreraig is a derelict township in the south of the Isle of Skye (click on the Location link at the bottom of this post to view its position on a map), which was cleared in the middle of the 19th century. Historian David Craig did some great research on it, which he published in his book On the Crofter's Trail. The villagers of Boreraig, together with their neighbours from Suisnis, were thrown out of their houses and marched east along the coast towards Druimfearn on the Sleat peninsula (if you are familiar with Skye you'll know the area I'm talking about). The people were kicked out to make way for sheep.
Donnie's picture shows the ruins of a cottage, with the opening for a door and a lintel across it; the sun shines in. Makes you think of the people that will have seen that afternoon light coming into their house for many a year; and then never to see that, or the hills around them, or the view down Loch Eishort, never again.
