Ancient beauty awaits.

Days merging, one unto another. Beauty remained the thread.

Undeniable beauty radiated from the ruins. Driving along the narrowest of roads, Sammy shoved me back into consciousness,

"Wanna see another castle?"

Umm OF COURSE Bek wanted to see another castle!

With the sun starting to set, we crossed a bridge, turned a bend, and there outstretched before us, was the most stunning sight. Eileen Donan sat on the horizon.

Stationed on the mainland we just stood and absorbed the scene. I couldn't stop imagining the reality of the slave labour taken to construct such a setting. I was astounded. How many stories lay hidden within those walls? What deception, love, destruction, death, danced those corridors at night? What history was hiding? The intrigue of it all alighted my mind.

Sammy taking out one camera and then another was delighted by the joy of capturing the image, I seemed to be captivated by it - by what was within it.

It seemed to be a theme. Wherever we would go, whatever we would see, my mind would construct stories, piece together fragments of history and imagine the other reality. I would attempt to turn back time in the confines of my mind. It was wonderful to be captivated by something other than myself.

On what seemed to be a wild goose chase, Sammy and I went to seek out some sacred stones. Driving high and low, finally we found two circles - one was very much broken with only a few stones left in place, the other was whole but slightly underwhelming.

In a field of felled trees, the first discovery was slightly disappointing. The scene was tainted by destruction. I know that's life, that things change and very rarely remain the same, but sometimes you long for that consistency.

After one heck of a hike up a stoney hill, there where some of the remaining stones stood I wrote:

In a place where more than stones did fall,

what’s left standing says it all.

Some things last,

other things not.

Destruction comes

at a cost.

A sacred setting,

a place of the past.

what a shame.

Not all things do last.

Throughout this time and into the next

these standing stones

were put to the test.

Some withstood,

others did fall.

I wish their stories history did recall.

When I look at what once filled this field

and now the crop that it does yield -

the dung from the cattle

that graze on this land...

I think only that it was not what ancient man planned!

Alas one cannot turn back time

if we could we'd control, Divine.

Be it a blessing?

That I dont know

but here the remains of destruction does show.

With it, a sadness within does brew

as the old meets the new...

Here remaining are fragments of old

stories, and tales, that generations told

their children the secrets of why they are here.

Why didn't their little ears hear?

Why didn't they save it?

Preserve it?

It's gone.

Forever.

What a cost. What a theme. Everything in life comes at a cost, be it little or small, there is always a price. Always.

Continuing exploring we eventually found the other circle! Once again it wasn't quite what we'd imagined. They were stones, they were in a circle... but they were ... somewhat small. The big boulders we'd imagined remains in our imagination!

With a chuckle and after being eaten by the midges, we stumbled across the most beautiful camping site. The adventures were not all lost.

The sunset was positively breathtaking.

Stones or no stones, the land held a story of it's own.

There was magic here. Even if it wasn't in the circle we'd hoped to find, it was in the soil, it was in the earth.