Due to impending personal circumstances which will reduce my ability to get out with the camera for the next 2 to 3 months, me and the Mrs discussed a trip off to somewhere where we have not been before.
Neither of us have visited the southwest region of Scotland before so we looked at a couple of places to visit, we made up an itinerary that could be completed in a day and began to look at the forthcoming weather forecasts.
The coming weekend showed sunny spells, with low winds and a low possibility of rain, so we penciled in the coming Saturday as the day but would keep an eye on the forecast in case it changed significantly.
The night before our departure still showed a reasonable forecast, so a early night was had with the intention of a early start the next morning.
The aim was to be away by 7.30 am which would get us to Portpatrick on the southwest coast of Galloway for around 10.30 am.
The journey was uneventful until we crossed into Scotland, when the weather made a change for the worse, it pored down, black skies and no sign of blue skies anywhere, what had we done?
Has we left Dumfries and behind there were glimpses of the heavy rain laded clouds beginning to disperse, and has we neared Portpatrick the skies were lighter, a little overcast but no rain.
We arrived at Portpatrick, a quaint seaside village on the Irish sea coast on time parked the car then found a café for a well-earned cuppa before we set off exploring. What a lovely village Portpatrick is, centered around the harbour with high cliffs to the north and south where vantage points overlooking the cliffs can be found.
The tide was coming in so I had a look around for any interesting photos that I could take, the many little coves got my attention, so I got back to the car to collect my gear.
I spent 30 – 40 minutes in one of these coves trying to capture the incoming waves as they crashed over the rocks, from here I found a little cove which had a arch at the far end that the incoming sea was flowing, but there was also a gap in the rocks which allowed the waves to flow over a ledge into the pool in form of me, again I spent 30 minutes or so using differing shutter speeds to capture the incoming waves to the best effect.
It was here that I noticed how hot it was becoming, very hot in fact, even though I had a tee shirt on, the long pants were causing me to overheat, how I wished I had brought some shorts??
After a couple of hours at Portpatrick we traveled north to find Killantringan Lighthouse, the maps and google search indicated that this was a good location, and boy was it just that, we stopped at the car park on top of the cliffs overlooking Killantringan Bay, what a view, banks of heather to my right and a view to uphold in front of me, I could not resist setting up the camera and taking several shots, I also took some photos with my Mamiya C220 medium format film camera that I had brought along to use.
From this location I headed towards the lighthouse, to find a splendid hidden cove below these cliffs, again I set up and took some images of this great vista in front of me.
Upon returning to the car, I found that Carole had struck up a conversation with a lady that was visiting the area in a camper van, from Newcastle and had made her a cup of tea to pass the time of day.
After these two had finished their conversation and tea, we left to travel to the next place we wanted to visit which was Ardwell Bay.
The travelling in the car was becoming so hot, every window was now open trying to get a breeze to cool us down, the temperature was showing as being 23 degrees in the car.
When we arrived at Ardwell Bay what a beach, simply unbelievable, miles of pristine white sand, and in these Mediterranean temperatures you could not fault the people who were on the beach.
After about 40 minutes we departed Ardwell Bay heading for our next place which was Port Logan, another gorgeous location, another outstanding beach, and a ice cream van to die for, the ideal refreshment for such a hot day.
Miles of golden sands, and spotlessly clean, what a lovely place.
As time was pressing on, we only stayed long enough to admire the views and eat our ice creams before we set off to the Mull of Galloway, the most southernly (or very near to it) point of Scotland.
What a place, perched high on the cliffs, a lovely light house within its own grounds that are a RSPB nature reserve and a excellent cafe on site. We spent well over a hour and a half leisurely exploring the site, the size and scale of the cliffs were simply amazing. Plenty of car parking places were available, and a all-round excellent place to visit.
I only took the film camera with me whilst walking around the site, but I did take some photos from my phone which are attached for information.
After a cup of tea and coffee and an excellent ice-cold milk shake, we headed back to the car for the 3-hour journey home, to end what had been a very long, hot, but thoroughly enjoyable day out.
This area of Scotland is beautiful, if like us you have intended to head northwards when visiting Scotland, we would highly recommend you consider this area for a visit, we were very surprised and mightily impressed by the sites we encountered on our day trip.
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