Today, after carving, I took advantage of the sunshine to go wandering. Several months ago I spotted an odd looking ruin on a hill and, after some researches and pouring over maps, I struck out to find the old Kirkennan site – it seems obvious that there was a settlement here at one time, now reduced to long tumbled walls. But amongst the sheep pens, you can make out the remains of older but and ben dwellings. There’s also an odd group of buildings, set apart from the others, which I suspect might have been the original kirk after which the site is named. How old, who knows? but there was a sense of serenity here, tempered with an edge of forlornness.

How long did such communities exist in the hills? Hundreds of years, I suspect – until the coming of the enclosures, now reclaimed by the whispering grasses.