A QUIET PLACE
We give some love to Ordnance Survey Explorer 440 (Glen Cassley & Glen Oykel) – the worst-selling map in the entire OS range
It’s a moonless October night and I’m racing along a remote singletrack road in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, holding a torch for illumination in one hand and gripping my front brake hood with the other.
As the last light of the day ebbs away, the whistling starts. Having been given an impromptu lesson about the wildlife by a group of stalkers at my hotel bar the previous night, I recognise these as the calls of female deer.
Then I hear another sound, a cross between a grunt and a roar, and I see a large dark shadow on my right converging quickly with the road.
The stag leaps a ditch and lands directly in front of me. My torchlight picks out a rippling haunch and glassy eye. I’m not sure if it looks threatened or threatening, but one flick of its huge antlers could send me into the middle of next week.
I’m still halfway through my elongated, one-handed braking when the beast disappears into the darkness. The sound of his
