The bus trundles along Canal Street, with nearly every seat taken up by a woman, her belongings and her thoughts.

Overladen buses trundle about the city, and a taxi fleet pensioned off in colonial days still plies its trade like a permanent veteran car rally.

As the bus trundled on towards Stornoway I noticed a tup with a galvanised steel boat-cleat embedded through its horn.

It vanished as the wide sweep of grey-blue sea fell beneath the rising ground behind the town, and as the bus trundled westward I looked out on a landscape of untroubled peace.

The bus trundled across the canal and away to the south; Kouliha with its tall towers was left behind.

Once the first bus trundled away, a second nosed up to the airlock.

Since 1996, when 5,500 buses trundled to and fro across the 750-yard bridge linking Skye to the Scottish mainland at Kyle of Lochalsh, the number of tour buses has actually dropped, to 4,500.

The bus trundled up and she leapt on.

The bus is trundling round the railway arches near Bermondsey when this hits me, and I gaze out the upstairs window with a lot of fondness.