Imagine the world as it was. Go back millions of years, well before mankind. But after the worst ice ages. Imagine the mountain scenery around Glencoe for example. Glaciers have scoured out the valleys. The glaciers have already dumped the huge boulders in the valleys, the remnants of their terminal moraines.
Earthquake eruptions have already caused huge chasms and cliff faces where roped rock climbers now go for sport. The slow weathering of the mountain tops centimetre by centimetre, year by year, has caused the mountain scree that runs under your feet to-day and is so tough on your knees. It has reduced the height of the mountains to mere 4,000 foot stumps from the giants of 14,000 feet they were once, the size of the Alps. Yet, if you have a mind so to do, it is not difficult to view this world exactly as it was. Exactly. To-days human existence will be tiny specks and easy to ignore.
They've only been here for the 10,000 years since the last Ice Age. The herons have been here that long, so have the deer. A little dreaming and you are back in time. It will take you three hours to the tops of the big mountains.
The easy method of looking back millions of years. Just climb Cuil Hill opposite our cottage in Glencoe. It will take you half an hour. You'll not see much sign of human life. But you will see the area as she was 40,000,000 years ago. www.
bayviewkentallen.co.uk .
By: john winkler
