August glory on the moor

Up on Harden Moor this morning to take in the glory if the August blooming heather.  It was more of a wander than a walk as I was looking for a particular path which I failed to find, there are so many!
This is the one I was looking for photographed and blipped in 2017. I saw some of these rutted stone tracks but not this one specifically. The whole moor shows the sign of man’s hand. Stone quarrying has taken place here for over 300 years. In the current blip you can see a depression where stone was removed and the stone track in the previous blip shows signs of the stone based paths rutted by the wheels of heavy trucks bearing the stone. There are rocks, heather covered hummocks and depressions all over the moor testifying to its past.  It us said that stone was supplied from here for the building of tge World Heritage village of Saltaire nearby. 
More recently all the footpaths that crisscross this moor by daily dob  and pleasure walkers are of course man made.

The moor itself of course is a made due to deforestation centuries ago and there is also a stone ring cairn that may be  Bronze Age.
Today we were really just enjoying the glorious heather and the continuing summer sunshine but it’s good to know the history too.

Thank you to the response to the Highland Aurora yesterday. 
Fun continued as the car battery was replaced in Ullapool the girls enjoyed ice cream in the rain and then, on the way back as the sun reappeared, Eda suggested they climb Stac Pollaidh, as you do! (She is her father’s daughter) Extra. There is no point looking at weather forecasts in the Highlands it changes every few minutes and around every corner!
Second extra the girls have fun in the Wee Hoose too. Eda has made an Oyster Catcher and Jude shows she’s a woman of style!


I’ve made a Flickr album of the Aurora and the heather here if you want to see more