Bratanais Mor is a small and low lying uninhabited tidal island, located half a mile to the west of the Calanais Stone Circle. It is grazed by sheep but they all ran away when they saw me. The island is covered in grass and cotton grass. It is accessed across a 50 metre rocky beach. There was no obvious path to the island, so I walked round the coast from the car park at Calanais. I found a slightly more direct inland route back but had to climb over a couple of gates I couldn't undo and at one point had to back track, as I couldn't get out of a field. Having run away from a couple of ponies, which were a bit too interested in me for my liking, I eventually emerged at the stone circle.
I saw a black rabbit disappear down a hole, as I arrived at the crossing point. In addition to the ubiquitous cotton grass, I also saw thrift, orchids, milkwort, butterwort, heather and tormentil on the island.
There is a small unnamed island adjacent to Bratanais Mor on its eastern side and joined to it at low tide by lots of slippery seaweed. I didn't visit it, as it is unnamed.
Lewis from Bratanais
Unnamed island from Bratanais Mor
Cottongrass on Bratanais Mor
Bratanais Mor from Lewis
The smaller one is Bratanais Beag (OS map)
ReplyDelete