MORVERN lines
Most communities in the Highlands have at least one favourite mountain on their doorstep which, depending on age and fitness, provides something for everyone. If your interest is in deer or sheep, hill walking, botany, geology, or simply an admirer of fine views, your eye will be drawn inevitably to its high ground. General Smuts, the famous South African and British Commonwealth statesman and philosopher, wrote: ‘When we reach the mountain summits we leave behind us all things that weigh heavily down below on our body and spirit. We leave behind all sense of weakness and depression. We feel a new freedom, a great exhilaration, an exaltation of the body no less than of the spirit. We feel a great joy.’ Or, in the words of the poet J M Barrie: ‘Not to know the hills is like never having been in love.’
Beinn Iadain is one of Morvern’s finest. It lies in the heart of the parish between Loch Aline and Loch Sunart. From its summit (1,873 ft) virtually the whole of the Inner and some of the Outer Hebrides come into view and to the north east, ridge on ridge rise like gigantic broken waves towards Ben Nevis and south to Ben Cru achan with its twin peaks. There is no mistaking Beinn Iadain. It’s profile is unique.