Grey seal Wild sea cliffs and moorland. First, a wealth of yellow rattle, red bartsia and bog asphodel. Grass of Parnassus is a late-summer flower and a recurring motif of the Mull of Oa.
The Oa Trail explores stunning coast. Approaching the quartzite promontory of Sgeirean Buidhe there’s a close encounter with Highland cattle who create chough habitat, their dung a source of the insects chough thrive on. They are a key RSPB management tool.
At Sgeirean Buidhe, and the bronze age fort of Dun Athad, sills reach out to the Atlantic Ocean, and sunlight illuminates and shadows headland and cliffs.
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The Oa Trail explores stunning coast. Approaching the quartzite promontory of Sgeirean Buidhe there’s a close encounter with Highland cattle who create chough habitat, their dung a source of the insects chough thrive on. They are a key RSPB management tool.
At Sgeirean Buidhe, and the bronze age fort of Dun Athad, sills reach out to the Atlantic Ocean, and sunlight illuminates and shadows headland and cliffs.
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Beyond thistles and sheep, from somewhere below the headland there comes a faint echo. Down on the shore there are secret sea-rooms framed by sills shielding pebble beaches, with portals of sea-stacks rising from aquamarine. Aquamarine, an alchemy of sunlight and cloud upon the sea and colour shimmering through the deeps.
From somewhere below the cliffs a faint cry. The forlorn cry of the selkie, the seal-wife of legend who leaves her kin to marry the mortal she loves, to bear his children, but always the sea calls to her and she must return. Glossy black ravens on clumps of faded sea-pinks on the cliff-edge. An echo of song somewhere about the skerries, slivers of dark rock running out from the cliff where the sun glints on sleek silver seal-skin beneath the waves. Magical seal-skin precious to the selkie, steal her skin and she cannot return from the world of mortals to her sea-home. Languid and gleaming on the skerries the selkies lie, their songs elusive on the air. A slither of gleaming wetness comes from the tranquil sea and hauls up onto the rock, a seal swims between the two rocks. The selkie enchantment is upon us.
Solitude and selkie magic. The few mortal folk we see gather by the American Monument but they and their dogs are gone as we reach it. We can tell they did not hear the selkies singing.
Moorland at the Mull of Oa: ling is budding, magenta bell heather is in bloom with the cross-leaved heath, cotton grass and bog pimpernel. Wild goats graze on the cliff- tops, amongst the white flowers of grass of Parnassus. Sea-stacks along the west coast as we head north and a buzzard comes down on the cliff top. Meadow browns mate in the grass. Across moorland and back to Upper Killeyan.
Driving back to Kilchoman we spy another ringtail flying over moorland. And a brown hare lopes before us.
Legends of selkies originate from Scotland and Norway, from fishing communities. They are sad and tragic tales. Look upon a selkie at moonlight the enchantment is upon you. Selkie or silkie. There’s a Scottish ballad ‘ silkie’ so selkie or silkie, the choice is yours.
Moorland at the Mull of Oa: ling is budding, magenta bell heather is in bloom with the cross-leaved heath, cotton grass and bog pimpernel. Wild goats graze on the cliff- tops, amongst the white flowers of grass of Parnassus. Sea-stacks along the west coast as we head north and a buzzard comes down on the cliff top. Meadow browns mate in the grass. Across moorland and back to Upper Killeyan.
Driving back to Kilchoman we spy another ringtail flying over moorland. And a brown hare lopes before us.
Legends of selkies originate from Scotland and Norway, from fishing communities. They are sad and tragic tales. Look upon a selkie at moonlight the enchantment is upon you. Selkie or silkie. There’s a Scottish ballad ‘ silkie’ so selkie or silkie, the choice is yours.
The American monument commemorates the loss of two troop ships in 1918, The Tuscania was torpedoed and sank with the loss of 230 lives . HMS Otranto was in a collision in Machir Bay in a heavy storm, with the loss of 400 lives. We visit the military cemetery at Kilchoman where we stay.
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