Carrol Rock is a special place for many people.
It's a Monday evening in May. I've come up to clear my head somewhere that I know will be peaceful, still and beautiful. I pull up to the car park, beside me are an elderly Irish couple touring the UK. They've stopped over for the night, promising to leave no trace, because they'd heard about how stunning Loch Brora is. They said this is probably the last long trip they'll be doing in their van as they're both in their mid 80's.
I walk towards the water's edge, taking in the sound of the cuckoos that have recently arrived back from Africa, passing by a couple of locals and their crazy dogs coming back from a walk. I get to the water, the cows are here resting on the warm sand. I glance up and over to the island, then over to the right where the sun is falling behind Carrol Rock. I spend 10 minutes here, dipping my feet into the clean, fresh loch water, before heading back to my car.
The lovely Irish couple offer me a cup of tea, I stay to chat before going home feeling a million times better than I had before I arrived. Carrol Rock is a meeting point for friends to enjoy the water, a Sunday afternoon family walk, a sunrise picnic spot, a perfect dark skies Northern Lights view point, an overnight Highland camping experience, a wonderful dog walk, an exciting historical excavation site, a place to see and hear the hundreds of red deer on the surrounding hills, somewhere to hear the first 'cuckoo' of the season, the final resting place for loved ones...
And apparently the quickest, cheapest route for SSEN to run their pylons. Progress, at the price of people.
