We ventured to the Isle of Skye in early April, eagerly looking forward to visiting the magnificent photographic locations. We arranged a overnight stay in Glen Coe at a hotel on the shores of Loch Leven, as we arrived at the hotel around 4.30pm this gave me time to unload the cases and travel back up Glen Coe to look for some phot opportunities, need less to say it did not disappoint, even in overcast murky conditions the views were amazing further enhanced with the snow on the mountains. I visited several locations some had other photographers present, so I worked around this. I grabbed some decent images from Glen Etive, Stob Dearg, Buachaille Etive Mor, and many more. After a couple of hours I returned to the hotel for the evening. The next morning we decided to re-trace our tracks and re-visit Glen Coe before continuing on to Skye. The weather was clearer than the previous day which allowed similar photos to be taken but under different lighting conditions. I got a lovely panoramic image form the shores of Loch Leven looking towards the snow capped mountains.
We then ventured towards the Isle of Skye, stopping off to take some images of at Eilean Donan Castle to grab a couple of images.
We finally arrived at the bridge onto Skye and drove to Portree where our hotel for the next 5 days was located.
The fist morning I rose before dawn to go to the Old Man of Store, everything was planned, the forecast was the best for the time that we were there, so off I set, the way up to the Old Man was a shock, it nearly killed me. What a location, outstanding, and we got a reasonable sunrise, simply an outstanding location. Later that morning after some breakfast we visited the Mealt Falls and the Quiraing, again outstanding locations and could not do them justice in the time we had to visit them.
The next day we visited Sligachen Bridge and the River Sligachen, again I could spend hours at this location alone, the Cullin Hills looked gorgeous capped in snow. After 3 hours or so we then set off the Fairy Pools, by the time we arrived here it was raining quite heavily and there were still loads of people about. We proceeded to walk the length of the pools grabbing images as we went. What a location simply breath-taking.
The next day was the turn of Talisker Bay to impress us, again it was an overcast raining day, but what a location. The tide was coming in so I had to work quite quickly to get some images form the sand, there was also a photo workshop group working the area too. I got two reasonable long exposures which were black and white form this location.
Our final location was the unbelievable Neist Point Lighthouse, it took some getting there, but boy was it worth it, I was blown away by what was in front of me. No wonder it was so busy, and the area so eroded by people walking around the cliff tops. The weather was far from ideal with sea mist and flat light, all this added up to a no-show sunset, but has I had travelled all this way, I was determined to get some reasonable images of this location.
Our last day was spent in and around Portree relaxing and shopping.
A note to us both that we will defiantly return to this lovely island and explore further, it lived up-to all our expectations, simply outstanding.
