Day 5 - Wednesday

(the above image of the Skye bridge is courtesy of a friend)

Wednesday started out rainy so I decided to go present shopping in Fort William. After being in large open spaces all week with hardly a sole to be seen it was a bit of a shock to the system to go into the hustle & bustle of a town again. I hate shopping to be honest anyway but it had to be done.

After doing the shopping the weather turned out bright so I decided to hop in the car and make my way to the Isle of Skye. A bit of a distance I know but the weather was looking good. A couple of hours I arrived at the Kyle of Lochalsh and the Skye bridge. The weather was turning grey and cloudy again and once over onto Skye the rain started again. The weather changed so quickly. I only got a couple of shots over there before it got too overcast to take any (see the cottage in Skye image). We decided to head home after having a cup of coffee in the local shop and wandering round a photoghraphers gallery next door. Some of his images were to die for. A wonderful talent I wish I had.

Anyway, we decided to head to the ferry terminal and get the ferry over to Mallaig which cut the journey home down by a few miles. Unknowingly that was not to be as there were roadworks along the road from Mallaig for quite a few miles which made our journey home take longer than expected. However the ferry crossing was very smooth which I enjoyed.

Day 4 - Tuesday

Tuesday saw a day of mixed weather. First cloudy and dull which turned to hazy sunshine later on. My trip today was round Kinlochleven and walking up to Inchree falls later.

Kinlochleven lies at the eastern end of the beautiful sea loch, Loch Leven, seven miles east of Glencoe. To get to Inchree Falls you follow a track for a little under a kilometre until your path goes off to both the left and right. The left path returns straight to the car park; the right climbs uphill amongst the conifers to the falls. This is known as Wade's road after General Wade, the engineer who built the first roads throughout the Highlands in the years after the first failed 1715 Jacobite rebellion, with the aim of bringing the region under closer government control. This particular road was actually built by Wade's successor, General Caulfield. Today it is a pleasant path and climbs into the heart of the forest. Here you see fungi of all descriptions and the falls themselves and views below are spectacular.

Day 3 - Monday

It was up at 5am to photograph Rannoch Moor at sunrise. Unfortunately it wasn't the best of sunrises. Rannoch Moor has a surface dotted with innumerable lochs, lochans, peat bogs, and streams; it is surrounded by mountains that rise to over 3000ft to the south-east and the west and to over 2000ft in the north. The area is crossed by a railway line, running a little inside the south-east side and a single road, running a little inside the south-west side. It has a very eerie atmosphere at that time of day as you can see by my 1st photo.

My second photo is of Blackrock Cottage, a well known landmark of the area photographed by all who visit the highlands. It lies next to the road of Glencoe Ski Range. The image was taken in the early morning light just after sunrise.

It was then back to my B&B for a hearty English breakfast of cereal followed by sausage, bacon, egg, tomatoes and mushrooms and ending with coffee & toast.

After a rest for 30 mins to let the food settle in my now bloated stomach LOL I started my days travels with a trip round Lochailort followed by Glenfinan (the home of the Glenfinan Viaduct and steam train which was used in the Harry Potter films) and then back home.

I was lucky to see 2 stags at the viaduct when I was there (4th photo). One was camera shy unfortunately but the other enjoyed posing for me LOL

The Roman Catholic Church of St Mary and St Finnan is a large Gothic building with stunning views down Loch Shiel. It was designed by Edward Welby Pugin, son of the better known Augustus Welby Pugin, designer of the House of Commons in London.

Day 2 - Sunday

The Glen Etive road meanders for some 14 miles to the head of Loch Etive, where it ends in a turning circle near a ruined pier. And that's it. The road down Glen Etive is the original "road to nowhere".
It's not always been that way. In 1750 there was a track running down the south side of the loch as far as Taynuilt.And from 1847 a steamer service from Oban operated to the now derelict pier at which the modern road ends.
Glen Etive is a magnet for climbers and hillwalkers, who come there especially to climb the mountains around Ben Starav to the south east and the Glen Coe mountains to the north and west. It is the sight of the most beautiful scenery in the highlands.

Day 1 - Saturday

I'm going to give you a day by day account of my holiday. I'll start with Day 1 - Saturday 6th September. I woke up to the most horrendous weather imaginable. It was raining like it had never rained for years.

Travelling in the car along the A68 towards Hexham (not far from home) was a nightmare. I didn't need a car, I needed a speedboat. When i went through the very deep pools of water that lay on the road, the water gushed over the windscreen & the top of the car nearly making me stall the engine. This went on for quite a few miles, but, thank goodness, further on up the road it started to clear & then near Glasgow the clouds turned to white fluffy ones with blue skies.

Ballachulish (pronounced bal-a-who-lish) where I was staying is a small village about 1 mile away from Glencoe, surrounded by beautiful mountains and Loch Leven. When I got to my room in the small b&b & unpacked my luggage, I decided to explore the village and walk along the lochside. In the middle of the loch were 2 islands. The larger one was called the Isle of the dead which was the graveyard of the clan McCleod from years gone by. The smaller island was called the Isle of Dispute. It was there that people of different clans who had a dispute with one another were taken by boat and left there till they had sorted out their differences.

The photograph above shows the Isle of the dead with the smaller Isle to the right hand side. Unfortunately you cannot see the water between them as I couldn't get a good viewpoint further over for the trees.

I'm back

Well folks i'm back from Scotland and had a great time. I couldn't have asked for better weather to be honest as England has been flooded with downpours of heavy rain. Scotland missed it thankfully and we only had 2 bleak days out of the seven. I'll be posting a photo a day from my holidays as I go through them all. Here's one for now. Loch Etive, my favourite place ever. beautiful mountains and 15 miles of lochside views and waterfalls. Pure heaven.

Holidays

Well folks it's that time of year when I have my annual holiday from work. I'm taking 1 week in Scotland. Unfortunately the weather forecast isn't too good as you can see from the screen capture I took this morning. Ah well there is the car to sit in and try taking photos whilst quickly lowering the window LOL. No matter what I wont be beaten and will hopefully get some shots.

I hope you'll all join me in a weeks time and continue to look at my blog when I return. I have come to look at you all as friends.

See you all soon.

Carole

Pretty in pink

Sorry to all my fellow bloggers but I haven't taken a photograph since Monday night because i've been getting everything ready for my holidays, so here's an image I took a while back (in the sun)hope you like it.

Sunset and Rainbow

Out with my friends Chris, Ron and Caroline from the camera club last night. We had a good night even if we only had an hours good light. We went into Caroline's field to take some photos of ... yes again...... haybales. We were fortunate to be blessed with a part rainbow which kept coming and going for a while.

More from Sunday

The first photo was taken from the bridge above and the others are the riverside market. Again I had to turn these into B&W because of the kind of weather we had. At least the rain kept off for these shots. I have added a slight film grain to them too for effect.