After our short visit to Glencoe and the Isle of Skye earlier this year, we agreed to re-visit these gorgeous areas of the UK.
The plan was to drive up to Glencoe on the 19th October, have a overnight stay at the Loch Leven Hotel, continue the journey to Skye on Sunday 20th. We then had four days exploring on the Isle of Skye before we re-traced our route home on Friday 25th and Saturday 27th, again with an overnight stay in the Loch Leven Hotel to break up the long journey home.
I spent some considerable hours planning the holiday in order to get to as many locations as possible with sensible travel times applied.
As we travelled along the shores of Loch Lomond, we planned to stop and have a look around the Falls of Falloch, we have never been there before and spend a couple of hours wandering about and capturing some shots. The light was harsh as it was early afternoon when we arrived there. When I reviewed my images when we got home, I had one reasonable photo from this location.
Upon arriving in Glencoe we were greeted by overcast weather conditions, I wanted to capture some specific shots whilst we were there. The first shot was the Black Rock Cottage just below the ski centre, unfortunately upon arriving there were many cars parked around the cottage which restricted my options to capture a decent image.
I then moved to the River Coupall falls to try and get a shot of the mountain behind the falls, when we arrived there were a few photographers already waiting, so we had a wonder about looking for other options. When we retuned to the falls, there was one photographer in position, so I waited until he had finished and proceeded to try and get some shots of the falls with the Buachaille Etive Mòr in the background, again I managed to get one reasonable image form this location.
From here we moved further down the valley to locate the Ralston Carin, my plan being to get some shots later in the afternoon with the sun setting in the west and hoping for some interesting light at the western end of the Glen. Once I found the cairn I had a look around, set up and waited for some favourable conditions to develop. The sun did break through the cloud cover which provided light within the Glen, my image is attached below, not bad, but we always want a better one!
On the Sunday, we drove to Eilean Donan Castle only to find the tide was going out (again) so after a stop to have a cuppa and a bite to eat we set off again. Once we crossed the bridge I noticed a turning to the left towards the sea so I took the option and was please to find that there was a reasonable view across the estuary towards the castle with plenty of water covering the rocks, I set up to capture a panoramic of the castle including the autumnal coloured trees on the shore line, overall, not a bad image.
My next plan was to stop on the Skye bridge to walk onto the island of Eilean Bàn to photograph the lighthouse, however when we arrived the weather conditions were pretty poor so we carried on to Portree.
On the Monday our plan was to visit the Quiraing and walk along the path to the north. The weather conditions were not to bad, overcast heavy sky's but moderate winds with light rain showers now and again. We never got to visit this area in April so we were excited to see what lay ahead for us. We were surprised to see the improvements that have been made to the car park on the top of the Quiraing, and how well this blended in with the surroundings. I even willingly paid the car parking fee as the improvements warrant the charges. We walked a good 2 to 2.5 miles along the path, with some outstanding views of the area, and the scale of the rock formations is outstanding. There were not that many people on the path which aided our progress. I took photos from differing angles trying to make the best of the conditions, and capture the scale of the place. Overall a very enjoyable couple of hours walking and sightseeing. Whilst on the journey back to Portree we stopped off at Loch Fada to view the Old Man and Storr form the Lochs shore, I also took some images using the reeds in the shallow waters of the Loch as foreground interest.
On Tuesday it was time to visit the Fairy pools, we were there last time but the weather was very poor, we were hoping for better conditions this time. Upon arrival at the car park the weather was awful, even worse than last time, but we were here so the waterproofs were put on and off we set to walk along Glen Brittle. There was more water flowing in the river this time which crated more opportunities for photos, but there were substantially more people about which created its own issues. As we walked up the Glen we stopped of at regular occasion to take photos and take in the scenery. As we got higher the roan intensified and the wind grew stronger, by the time we reached the top falls my camera was soaked and most of the dry cloths I was using to wiped my lenses were also soaked.
We hung around for a hour or so hoping for a break in the weather, but with little chance of this we re-traced our way down the Glen back to the car for a well deserved hot cup of tea with some food, all told another enjoyable 3 to 4 hours walking.
We spent some time sorting out our clothing, and drying off the camera equipment. when you would not believe it, it stopped raining with sights of the sun trying to shine through the cloud cover.
From the Fairy pools we set off to try and capture a sunset at Neist Point, upon arriving it was not raining, but there was a very strong wind blowing, I proceeded to the tops of the cliffs to see what was available, but was worried about the force of the wind which was nearly blowing me off my feet at times. I found a sheltered area next to some large rocks and set the tripod on its widest possible leg circumference for the maximum stability.
The wind was causing continuously changing conditions, so I settled myself in for a period of time, just watching the changing conditions and snapping away to try and capture them. After a couple of hours or so, I decided to move down the steps to relocate at the bottom on the cliffs from where I was now. This would provide a different viewpoint and hopefully create additional interest of the massive vertical cliffs which lead to the lighthouse. Once down below the cliffs, the wind was a lot less powerful, so I picked a location and waited and watched for some interesting conditions to develop. After a hour or so, the horizon became black, rain could be seen falling from the gathering clouds, and the wind was beginning to rise, so I mage the decision to pack up and move back to the car.
Thursday morning was the morning of dread, and excitement, it was my attempt to climb up to the Old Man of Storr again, the first time nearly killed me, so I knew what wa sin front of me, but it brings great rewards once you are up there. Again the weather was not playing ball, the old man was not visible form the road when I arrived, wet weather gear on, and off I set, upwards, upwards and upwards. Again I found progress hard going, and I needed many short stops to get my breath and to recover some energy. I made it to the first view point, blowing like stem train. The wind was very strong so I sough shelter behind rocks which provided some stability for my tripod. Again the changing weather conditions and the strong wind provided a constantly changing view in front of me, so I sat a clicked away. After a while I packed up and headed to the highest viewpoint, last time I never achieved this so I was determined to get up there this time. My legs screaming, me huffing and puffing for what seemed like ages, but I finally got there. But when I poked my head over the crest of the hill, OMG what a shock, I was nearly blown backwards by the wind. After assessing the conditions, I decided to work around the viewpoint, but below the level of the crest as the wind was far too strong to stand up. Again I settled down watching the ever changing conditions, and clicked away. After a hour or so, time to pack up and make my decent back to the comfort of the car. Early afternoon was our turn to head for Elgol, never been there before, but we had done some research and hoped for a decent sun set to capture some valued photos form the is lovely location. We arrived at about 3.30 so we had some time to have a look around, and plan some compositions, already the light shining though the broken cloud cover was creating some lovely shapes on the mountains opposite. To support these conditions there were heavy rain showers within the Cullin mountains which added more atmosphere to the scenes in front of us.
We spent probably 3 hours at Elgol, what a magical place it is, whilst we never got any spectacular lighting conditions, we did capture some lovely light and shadow compositions.
Friday was our time to return to Glencoe, but we had a stop odd at Sligachen before we left the island, we visited here in April but had poor light and weather conditions. when we arrived at the bridge there was a significant reduction in the amount of water running in the river to what they had been in the preceding days. I found a composition looking off the new road bridge towards the old bridge and the Cullin Mountains in the background dusted in the first snow fall of the winter. Whilst I was playing around with differing time exposures, shafts of light began to shine on the Cullin mountains, travelling down the mountain towards the bridge, I got some special images form here, ones that I am very happy with.
On the Friday we were in Glencoe from where I hiked up A Chailleach to get some images of Buachaille Etive Mor early in the morning, the hope was that the early sunrise would hit the Buachaille and provide some exquisite light on the mountain. I again struggled when climbing up A Chailleach, it was steeper than I imagined and was very wet and boggy underfoot. I got most of the way up, but it had taken me longer than I hoped so I settled down to capture some images of the mountains in Glencoe which had fresh snowfall on the higher areas of them. Coming dome was even more precarious than going up, I slipped several times on the waterlogged surface, luckily not doing any serious damage. From here we travelled further run Glencoe where we got some images from the River Etive looking towards the Buachaille one with is shrouded in light rain which produced a slight rainbow. When crossing the road back to the car the conditions produced a lovely rainbow across the valley which I was lucky to capture.
This brought to a end and thoroughly enjoyable week in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, we saw some lovely scenery, took loads of photos and enjoyed the Isle of Skye hospitality to its fullest, hopefully we can will return to this lovely area of the UK. But for now it has provided many happy an pleasant memories.
