Discernment is best begun in The Wilderness. The Wilderness holds time to quest after the timeless. The Wilderness holds space to peer into the depths of self. The Wilderness demands sacred attention to the non-human physical and metaphysical world... or so I have been told by prophets, preachers and philosopher kings...
All summer I have looked upon the steep waterfalls, towering cliffs and jurassic greens, browns and yellows of the Burg. From Camas Tuath, it rises across the sea loch with a powerful beauty. Sunrise, Sunset, tea break - the Burg or Bearraich is always there across the waters whispering of wild adventure and the remote truths that live on the edge. Since I discovered, that the north west of the Bearraich is called “The Wilderness” (NM 406 292 for those with a copy of the OS map), it has beckoned to be explored. With the Camas season finished and good weather on the horizon, I packed my survival gear and spent two days in The Wilderness. To do justice to the experience requires a telling of this story in person or, perhaps, a venture for you to a similar place, so here I will provide a simple summary and leave most of the majesty of the experience for you to imagine and seek out.
Day 1
Sunrise saw me at the top of the track with my thumb out waiting for an angel to give me a ride. A love filled community transport driver from Kintra pulled up and we headed off towards Bunessan to pick up his passenger on the way to Craignure. We talked politics, government and weather and I waved goodbye at the Kinloch Crossroads. Now off the main road, I started walking, with the sun behind me, towards midmorning. Half an hour later, I found myself listening from the backseat of a car to the Mull Car Rally Route Surveyors discuss and note each feature along the road in detail as they prepared for a rally this weekend. At the juncture towards the scenic route to Salen, in sight of the community owned Tiroran Woods, I found myself again on foot with a gravel road for company.
Through small glens I followed the road. With the sun hot on my back I found hazels and blackberries to snack on. The soft sweet juice of the berries and the milky crunch of the wild hazelnuts spurred me on, until the road faded and turned to hiking path. At the National Park boundary, I left the trail which would have taken me to a 50 000 000 year old fossilized tree, and instead followed sheep tracks up towards Bearraich summit 430 meters above.
The views of the purple, red, orange golden green grasses blowing across the landscape were stunning. The air was clear and from the top I could see across the atlantic from the Isle of Jura to Skye and perhaps even beyond. To the east Ben More (Big Hill) was magnificently bathed in full sun. More than 1200 feet below the waves crashed and the hexagonal purple volcanic rock shelves echoed in response as I sat just out of the wind, ate, and listened to the cacophony.
The first and second streams disappeared over a cliff about 200 feet down so I made my way along Aoineadh Thapuill(see link for translation) to An Sgoltadh(Place of the Splinters) where a third stream had worn itself into the cliff face and a rock pillar stood out from the cliff edge pointing at the sun overhead like a giant sundial.
The descent was treacherous, slow and steep. With cliffs on either side, I cut back and forth across the slippery stream. At the steeper parts, I followed the deer trail and lowered myself down the mossy banks one waist height at a time. With 3 days of supplies on my back, the task was all encompassing. I was part of the rocks, part of the water, my feet were tuned to the deer prints to keep me just out of reach of gravity's pull.
Safely out below the sheer cliff face I found myself in awe. With waterfalls to my right I stood on a patch of heather clinging to the fairly steep grass and fern encrusted banks above the seashore. In the late afternoon sunlight the waters shimmered amongst fantastical rock formations, sharp small peaks, natural sea arches, and many caves. It was not long before I came across a small herd of fifteen deer grazing on the cliff side. Below them, I saw twenty mountain goats with horns as long as my forearm moving with the wind swept grasses. As the sun began to set, I made my way down the steep shores of The Wilderness to the seaside. There, amidst echoes of Stags bellowing into the wind, I set camp. I drifted to sleep watching the stars appear above the shimmers of my driftwood fire.
Day 2
It was a chaotic and windy night. I broke camp at dawn and hiked up into the scree and grass. Next to a natural chimney rock, I crested a ridge and came to 100 feet below a giant Stag who began to bellow. His calls were answered by another stag 200 feet above, outlined in the dawn light against the cliff walls. Sheltered from the wind in a round circle of stones I sat and spotted many other deer and goats around me as I listened and prayed. With the ocean waters stretched before me, Camas across the sea to my left, the isle of Staffa in front and Ulva to my right, the sun rose and I ate breakfast.
At some point I was ready to leave and the rest of the day went quickly by. Following the deer and goat herds across the lower set of cliffs just above the waves I made my way North. Not wanting to attempt the climb back up the stream I continued along the coast. Over waterfalls, along narrow trails that hugged the cliffs above with the edge of cliffs below I followed the sure footed goat and deer paths. 
Some relevant quotes that shaped my journey through The Wilderness:
“Together we seek to enable growth in love, respect and awareness of ourselves, each other, god, and the environment.” Camas Mission Statement, Iona Community
“The branches from the vine of life are separate, yet the derive from a common taproot. Like foliated Celtic knotwork, they intertwine...Community with nature; Community with the divine, and; Community with one another...Soil, Soul, Society” Rekindling Community - Alastair McIntosh
“Everywhere people ask: ‘What can I actually do? The answer is as simple as it is disconcerting: we can, each of us, work to put our own inner house in order. The guidance we need for this work cannot be found in science and technology, the value of which depends on the ends they serve; but it can still be found in the traditional wisdom of [humankind].” Small is beautiful - E.F. Schumacher
“If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all [their] projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a [person] has saddled [themselves] with new problems and conflicts. That individual has become a serious problem to [themselves], as the individual is now unable to say of others that that if they do this or that, they are wrong, and they must be fought against… Such a person knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in them, and if that individual only learns to deal with their own shadow they have done something real for the world. They have succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved problems of our day” Psychology and Religion: West and East - Carl Jung
