As objects of admiration, awe and legend, mountains seem to offer a sense of permanence in a dynamic world of constantly shifting ideas and priorities.

From tumultuous origins, today's Scottish mountain environment has endured scouring by ice-cap and glacier as stacks of ice slid through the glens and broke off as massive bergs into the Hebridean seas leaving a landscape carved and sculpted into the striking and sometimes fragile environment we currently witness. Continually subject to the ravages of wind, rain and snow the mountains reveal shapes and shadows that by turns inspire and intimidate, excite and placate.

Although certainly not massive in world terms, the Scottish mountains nevertheless reveal a variety, complexity and majesty that belies their meagre stature - a majesty that assumes hypnotic significance when combined with the play of light through broken skies.