A week of photography in the Scottish Highlands and Skye

I recently took a week long trip to Scotland to spend some time doing landscape photography, not something i have a lot of practice doing coming from the very flat and boring Lincolnshire. I have a few weeks of work for Christmas and had been trying to plan a photography trip for months, but before i decided on where to go i had left it too late and all the flight prices had shot up, so i settled on Scotland. I had a look at some of the best spots to go decided on a route, booked some hotels, filled my car up with fuel and at midnight i set off for Fort William. I drove though the night to make sure i was at Kilchurn Castle for sunrise, as the weather forecast had said it had a good potential to be nice! I arrived an hour before sunrise, after having to stop halfway and put some oil in the engine! As it got closer to sunrise, the rain started, and didn’t stop, but i decided i still needed to get out and have a look and maybe make a couple of photos. I had to walk a hundred meters or so through a swamp like field to get to the waters edge, there was no light, no reflections and lots of rain, but i set the tripod up and made a few photos anyway. I wasn’t pleased with the images, so packed up, got in the car and headed to the next location on my way, except another issue with the car had evolved, it thought the bonnet was open, rendering the wipers dead. It was raining hard and i couldn’t drive without wipers, i manged to clean the connections out with a can of De-icer! It was time to go again, and hopefully dry off on the way, next stop was another castle, as i arrived, it was foggy and raining and i couldn’t even see it, so i drove on by to Fort William. The weather in Fort William was raining and foggy too, so i ate, and had a few hours of daylight left so planned another stop to photograph. I headed up to Glencoe to scout for the next days photography, i stopped at a few spots on the way, but soon had to turn around and head back as the snow was coming down heavy and was making driving impossible in my car! I headed back to town and to the hotel for the night to edit the days photos.

My second day was an early start and wanted to try to head back up the road the Glencoe again, without the now hopefully. After a McDonalds breakfast, i headed back up the road , stopped in the same place as the day before, looking across at a lovely little cottage with mountains for a back garden! I took a few snaps, and for a while was the only person there, i then walked across the road and up a single track road along side a river. I had not seen any photos from here on the internet or my book but found some compositions i liked, including a small waterfall with a mountain as a background. I set up the tripod and attached the 10 stop filter and made a few images. Looking the other way down the road was another mountain, so i took a couple of shots of the road looking like it runs straight into it.

I continued down the road towards Etive Mor waterfall, stopping to photograph on the way, it wasn’t long before i stopped again, at a very rough car park with only a mountain in the distance to photograph. There were a few people turning up, snapping photos without leaving the car park and leaving. I thought there must be nothing good here to photograph but still decided to walk up and out of the car park and found some nice compositions and made one of my favorite photographs from the whole trip. I wasn’t there long before moving on to the next location, another small cottage on its own, with a river and its own bridge, i stopped, and had the whole place to myself to explore and photograph. I spent maybe an hour here just wandering around making lots of photographs! It was brilliant.

I continued up the road to Etive Mor waterfall, an iconic location for amazing photographs, i had been looking forward to this stop for weeks, it was half the reason i wanted to stay in the Fort William area, but as i arrived to the turn off for the waterfall, the road was closed, for 3 days, the 3 days i was in the highlands for. I couldn’t believe it. I had a free afternoon now, and needed to use it up doing photography, because come 3:30 it would be dark and i’d have all evening editing photos. I decided to drive all the way to Glenfinnan, to see the famous viaduct from the harry potter films and a lovely loch opposite for sunset. I arrived and rushed up the track road to the viaduct, gorgeous golden light was covering it, but as i arrived to get a photograph it disappeared. I took a few snaps, had a quick look around at this impressive structure then headed back to the loch for a sunset photo. Looking down the loch between two mountains was the sun right in the middle, creating a beautiful pink sky and orange clouds, it was perfect, i raced to the shoreline, set my tripod up and took a photo, i was too late, the sun had dipped below the horizon, the clouds had changed and the light had gone. I had been 30 seconds too late to both photographs that afternoon, so didn’t make anything amazing but still came out with some nice images and had a nice peaceful afternoon watching the sunset and blue hour coming in in the Scottish highlands.

My third day in Scotland, i drove to Inverness, past Loch Ness, the plan was to stop for some photos of the famous loch and maybe take the camera out in the city, but the loch was actually pretty boring and also so was the city, so i finished off some Christmas shopping and drove back home, on a different road i went on, to hopefully see something interesting, what i found was a 30 mile single track road running up and along the top of some mountains covered in snow and ice !! It was not a good choice and took me a long time to get back to Fort William. The next day was my last on the mainland and i was heading for the Isle of Skye, the weather wasn’t great so instead of heading back to Glencoe first i just drove straight to Skye, stopping on the way to capture a lovely image that could have been taken anywhere in the Alps and at Eilean Donan Castle, i hadn’t planned to stop here, i didn’t even know it was on my route, but it was lovely, right from the car park was a beautiful composition, tripod and 10 stop out and i made some photos, i had a wander around the castle but there weren’t many photos to be made from anywhere but the car park!

I arrived on Skye expecting it to be busy with photographers as i had read its a landscape hotspot. I stopped at my first location, Sligachan Bridge, an old unused stone bridge over a river running down from the mountains in the distance. I was the only person there to my surprise, until two buses of tourists arrived. They jumped out, ran to the bridge, took some selfies and hopped back on the bus and left, i was alone again! I explored both sides of the river and the bridge its self and settles on a couple of shots, the 10 stop came out again to blur the water and clouds and i took a few shots. I drove past Portree, the main town and my home for 3 nights and up the coast road to find The Old Man of Storr, once again expecting to be busy with tourists but finding it empty and completely to myself. I parked up, and made my way up the hill, not doing any research other than that the photos from the top at sunset could be amazing, i didn’t realise how high and steep this path was, with my huge heavy camera bag on i almost died on the way up! i reached the top, the sun had gone behind the next mountains over and the light died off, i didn’t take any photos worth keeping but the view and just sitting up there in peace was amazing.

The sun soon set, very boring behind a lot of clouds, so i went to find the nights hotel, the last hotel in Portree i could find that wasn’t insane money, £250 for 3 nights still seems a lot since the travel lodge in Fort William was £80 for 3 nights, but when i arrived, it looked like a castle, it was amazing. Inside it was the fanciest hotel i have ever been in, i never pay much for hotels because i just sleep there, but this time i was going to be in here a while so didn’t mind paying a bit extra and it was worth it. If you go over to my Instagram i have a video of it on my highlights!

After some fish and chips and netflix for the evening while editing photos in the hotel, i had a long sleep and woke up after sunrise because the weather was very bad, the days plans were to head to the famous Fairy Pools. Nowhere on this island was an easy drive in my car, its lowered on stiff track suspension and the roads are more suited to 4x4’s. I rattled my way down to the Fairy Pools and a man told me i had to cross the river to reach the top, but due to all the rain the stepping stones were a good foot under water, and i didn’t have any wellies with me, just some boots, so i decided to find something else for the day and come back to this spot. I drive another hour down the awful roads to Neist Point Lighthouse. It was still raining very hard when i arrived, but what a spectacular view! I sat in the car, had some snacks and drinks and waited for the rain to pass, it didnt pass but after an hour i was eager to get out, so coat and camera bag on i went for a walk, the path from the car park was to go down the cliff to the point and lighthouse, but i wanted to photograpgh the point, so i walked up and along the cliff tops, it was very very wet, almost losing my boots a few times. The rain was still quite heavy but i got the camera out, no tripod just fired of a bunch of shots as i walked alone the cliff edge before the rain got too much and a walked back toward the car park, but as i arrived the rain stopped and the sky cleared a bit. I then walked down the very steep path to the lighthouse, making friends with some sheep on the way! The lighthouse is all locked up and cant get very close to it at all. Opposite the lighthouse is a path down to the coast where i tried to get some nice coasted seascapes. It was hard to navigate the rocks and the sea was rough so i gave it up and went back to the car. I spend most of my day driving and had very few photos to show but i will share some.

My final full day on Skye was not a busy one, i slept in, the rain was still pouring, and was going to go back to the Fairy Pools and then to Elgol to finally make some seascape photographs. Due to the non stop rain in didn’t bother trying the Fairy Pools as i thought they would still be impassable. I left the hotel around 10, went to stock up on some daily snacks and set off for Elgol beach, a tiny fishing village, a long way down more terrible roads, the final mile was very steep and gave my brakes a real workout. It was absolutely gorgeous, empty, not a single other person in sight, the only noise were the waves crashing into the rocky beach! I spent about half an hour just eating and watching the sea before i even got out of the car, the weather was lovely, the sky had some colour and i was excited to get some rough sea photography, as most of the coast near me is boring sand beaches. I first went down the boat ramp, just to get into things, 10 stop on again, for some movement in the water. i then moved down the beach and stop around 3 hours exploring and making lots of photographs, two other photographers did turn up. The sunset wasn’t very good, which was very disappointing, but i had still made some of my favorite seascapes.

The next day i drove to Edinburgh, did some shopping and spent the evening in a really crap hotel, and then at around 3am i drove back home in time to have breakfast with my girlfriend before she went to work for the day !

Thank you for reading, and i highly recommend Scotland and the Isle of Skye for either just a peaceful get away or a photography trip! I would love to know which of my photos is your favorite and i would really appreciate it if you shared my Facebook post and invited your friends to like my page and get my photos to as many people as i can ! In the new year i will be offering some of the photos from this trips for sale as prints too ! Follow my Facebook and Instagram if you’re not already for more updates and photos in the future.