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Christmas Eve 2004 was a wild but beautiful day in Northern Sutherland and Caithness. There was a dusting of snow down to sea level and significantly more inland and on the hills. Gavin and I travelled that morning to Ben Loyal. On the road between Tongue and Loch Loyal we were gifted a spectacular sunrise of intense oranges and reds over the hill of Ben Stumanadh on the east side of Loch Loyal, and later from the summit ridge of Ben Loyal there were wild views across the moors to Ben Klibreck. On our journey home the light was just beginning to fade as we approached Bettyhill. The view captured here is of Torrisdale beach and the mouth of the River Naver with a raging North Atlantic surging into Torrisdale Bay. The promontory of Aird Torrisdale and Neave Island are beyond. Christmas day remained cold with further snow in Caithness. In particular on Christmas morning the combination of wet sticky snow and high winds led to the natural formation of snow balls up to football size in the road outside our house in Thurso!

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