A' Mhòine

Ben Hope with early morning cloud streaming away on a westerly wind, as seen from Moine House. Ben Hope is the most northerly of the Munros - Scottish Mountains over 3000 feet (914.4 Metres) high - and is not far from the northerly coast of Sutherland. On this day a westerly wind was carrying moist air from the sea, and this condensed as it hit the slopes of the mountain causing the cloud stream.
The Moine is a vast area of heather moor and peat bog which from ancient times has been a barrier to transport and trade. The first good road across The Moine was built in 1830, and Moine House was built as a half-way stop. The house was abandoned some 60 or 70 years later.

The aptly named ruin of Moine House high on the boggy shoulder between Loch Eriboll and the Kyle of Tongue, with Ben Loyal (left) and Ben Hope (right) in the distance. Moine is Gaelic for Moss or Bog, and you have to hand it to the folk that even attempted to scratch an existence in this windswept and forbidding place.

...And I've just discovered this place has been singled out as the preferred location for Scotland's first Spaceport!