Enchanted

The sort of day that has a tinge of 'magik' to it. A long walk down a wide valley, surrounded by crags, with distant views of higher peaks. Mountain quiet - only the constant sound of water - and devoid of movement, but at the same time, a certainty that more than one pair of eyes are observing us

Three isolated standing stones on a raised patch of land, with views up to the hills and down to the Atlantic: a message from the ancestors. Then our first sight of our terminus - Glengorm Castle - an absurd gothic-cum-Tyrolean gingerbread building that thinks it is positioned to command the landscape - the hubris! Mrs M suggested it is Gormenghast (the near-anagram can't be a coincidence!) so we kept a weather eye for Steerpike

Heading back down the valley, we sat on a cut tree stump for lunch, like small, lost elves in a vast walled garden. No surprise then when the base of the stump supported two archetypal long-stemmed toadstools

The air was bright, the weather was kind, the views of Ardnamurchan and Coll were glorious. I took 50 pictures. But the deepest magic was reserved to the end when three golden eagles - no doubt the eyes that watched our outward journey - permitted us to observe their hunting skills as we made our return