At the beginning of this month I had a bizarre but illuminating experience. I visited Cape Wrath, which is the extreme north-western tip of the United Kingdom.

I went to deliver a donkey called Martin to the start of his walk down the whole length of western Britain – but that is not the bizarre experience I am writing about now.

On my way south, alone, I stopped in Moidart for a few days of silence and solitude in the little house I run as a hermitage there (take a look at www.saramaitland.com if you are interested). And north-west Scotland was, by chance, enjoying a rare spell of almost perfect weather: blue skies, warm sunshine, extraordinary long bright evenings and precisely enough wind to keep the midges away.