The constituency from the north

I dont often drive into  Argyll & Bute from the north - that is from Glencoe and Rannoch Moor.   But today coming back from last night's public meeting on Land Reform in Fort William  I spent an hour campaigning in Glencoe village with Kate Forbes who is the candidate for the neighbouring constituency of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch and  alongside Dave Thompson who is the retiring MSP (and whom I have known for nearly 40 years).    

That meant I was well positioned to carry on driving south on the A82 so that I could leaflet the tiny village of Bridge of Orchy in the constituency (which is just beyond Loch Tulla in the picture  and about half an hour from Glencoe) ) and then drive on to do the same in  part of Dalmally. 

It was day of blowing cloud and occasional heavy showers and this picture shows just that as well as  the extraordinary wild landscape of this part of Scotland.  

Yet there are signs of humankind even here - the farmhouse and the improved ground on the left, the top of a road bridge in the middle (which carries the main road ) and if you are really looking at it closely  you can just see on the hillside the  mark where the Fort William / Glasgow rail line runs.     A few moments before I took this a freight train slowed went past , small but distinct against the brown of the winter  vegetation , for spring is not here yet.