Читать книгу Scotland's Best Small Mountains. 40 of the best small mountains in Scotland under 3000ft онлайн

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Ben Loyal is known to many as ‘the queen of Scottish mountains’, although it’s not clear why, as the name doesn’t seem to have royal connotations. But ‘queen’ or not, Ben Loyal does have an impressive castle.

The granite tower of An Caisteal, ‘the castle’, is Ben Loyal’s highest top, at 765m. It is just one of the five rocky tops that crown the ridge, causing it to be described as castellated. From each of these tops you gain fantastic panoramic views over the surrounding countryside, composed as it is of vast swathes of wild land and water. The shifting white sands of the Kyle of Tongue in particular are a sight to be seen.

Ben Loyal across the Kyle of Tongue

In the middle of the Kyle you can see the Rabbit Islands, so named because rabbits were introduced to them in the 1700s to provide meat for the local laird. You also look down to small Lochan Harkel. Not that notable in its appearance, it does hold an extraordinary story and, perhaps, treasure!

In 1746, the Hazard, a Jacobite ship carrying over £13,000 in gold coins to fund Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellion, hid in the Kyle of Tongue, hoping to evade capture by HMS Sheerness, a navy frigate. The Hazard’s crew took the coins ashore with a plan to deliver them by land, but the crew were attacked and threw the coins into Lochan Hakel. Bonnie Prince Charlie sent 1500 men to retrieve the money, but they were defeated en route, and it is thought that the government recovered most of the coins. If the 1500 men had fought at the Battle of Culloden instead, they might have prevented the Jacobites’ defeat.