Scotland: Stonehaven

As we headed to the east coast we lost most of our sunny weather and were treated to a storm, compliments of the North Sea. There is nothing quite so inviting in a stormy little fishing village as a warm and welcoming pub. We were heading to Stonehaven to have a look at Dunnottar Castle. The town of Stonehaven was so inviting and the Marine Hotel had such great food we ended up staying two nights.

Here are our first glimpses of Stonehaven.

And after a very long walk, much of it uphill, here is Dunnottar Castle and the surrounding area.

How can any collection of photographs of Scotland be complete without a Scottish thistle?

I loved the look of the rolling fields with the bales of hay and straw. When the sun struck them just right, they positively glowed.

And finally, a parting shot of the Marine Hotel as we left with the storm still raging. This is taken from the inside of a dry car. If you are ever on the east coast of Scotland I highly recommend the Marine Hotel for lunch, dinner, a pint or an overnight stay.

Scotland: Skye to Inverness

The next leg of our journey took us from Lochalsh toward Inverness. The countryside between Skye and Inverness is stunning. The weather was starting to turn rainy and the skies were overcast, still the sun managed to make a couple of appearances.

This is the cairn on Culloden Moor. Appropriately, the day turned completely grey while we were here. The Moor is pretty much as it was 260+ years ago.

Scotland: The Isle of Skye

I've been looking forward to visiting Skye for quite some time. And it was even more beautiful than I expected. One of the branches of my family emigrated to Canada from Skye a long, long time ago and it is amazing that I still feel a connection to this place.
We were fortunate enough to have a clear and sunny day for our tour of the island - something the locals assured us was quite rare in October.

The north side of the island is sparsely populated and once outside the towns near the bridge (Broadford and Portree, the capital) we found ourselves on a single track road pulling off to the side infrequently to left a car pass by and more often slowing down to admire the local sheep. But more on the sheep of Skye later.

This picture was taken in Trotternish and shows off the Old Man of Storr.

And now back to those sheep. At first they looked friendly enough. Willing to pose for a picture or two while trotting down the highway.

I'll leave the sheep alone for a while and return to the natural beauty of Skye.

Somewhere about now, we had made our way to the south of the island and felt it appropriate that we take a short break and tour the Talisker Distillery in Carbost. It was a fine tour, with a wee dram offered as a sample and then we were back on our way.

Ahhh, the return of the Sheep of Skye. There is a bit of an inside joke about the sheep. I wanted a picture of me with the sheep on the road and I wanted that picture very badly. I had Roël stop several times so I could get out and mingle with the sheep while he got the picture. Every time I stepped out of the car, the sheep made for the hills. So one more close-up of my friend, the sheep the way they look when you are in your car. And then the view we had most often. The sheep, actually airborne, and from the rear.

A couple more shots of the incredible scenery on Skye.

And then back to the bridge at Kyleakin.

A Few Days in Scotland, cont'd ...

It seems amazing now to think that in one fell swoop we caught an afternoon flight from Toronto to Glasgow then drove for five hours to Kyle of Lochalsh, stopping to take in the beautiful scenery, booked into our hotel and still when the afternoon sun showed up we had the energy to grab the cameras and set out in the car to see what we could find.

Scotland and the Highlands, in particular, are indescribably beautiful. And when that perfect afternoon sun shines on this part of the world, sleep seems to be less important.

This little fellow was very friendly and agreed to pose right in the sunlight for me. He seemed to like us and hung around for a while letting Roël get quite a few great shots of him.

These red berries seemed to be everywhere. I couldn't resist the colours against that blue sky.

A last, brave sprig of heather in bloom. One thing still on my list of sights to see - the Highlands when the heather is in bloom.

A few rays of sunlight catching the ferns in the shade.

Roël hard at work. I am never quite sure what he is seeing and I am almost always speechless when I see it on the back of the camera afterward. He will be posting some of his images on his blog. You can watch for them at www.roelphoto.com/blog.

The afternoon sun can make anything, even a cemetery, beautiful.

A Few Days in Scotland

October may not seem like the perfect time to visit Scotland ...

Roël and I were very fortunate with the weather on our most recent trip, and Scotland generously offered up some beautiful scenery, a spectacular history and many friendly and helpful people.

We spent our time touring by car and, as we prefer to do, wandered where the winds blew us.

After landing very early in Glasgow, we decided to make our way north toward the Isle of Skye - which was definitely on our list of must-see destinations.  Little did we know we would make the entire drive to Skye that  first day.

Here are a few of my favourite images from that drive north.

The sun rising over Loch Lomond:

A hint of the fall colours that were all around us as we drove:

We stumbled across the incredibly beautiful Loch Awe. First the castle,

then the trees in the morning mists.

Roël saw this out of the corner of his eye as we were driving.

And this too. I'm not sure the name of this loch, though the absolute stillness of the surface gave us some amazing reflections.

More mists rising out of the trees.

Everywhere we looked we found views like this

and this.

This was a little bizarre and interesting scene. We had a chat with some locals about what this represented. It is a recent change. A funeral cairn seems to have been dismantled and turned into hundreds of mini-cairns.

Sun over a lake. The key point here is that I managed to produce a starburst with my camera. A first for me and something I've been trying to accomplish since we were in Portugal last year. :-)

And finally, two views of the bridge connecting the Isle of Skye to the mainland. On the right (mainland) is the town of Kyle of Lochalsh and on the left (Skye) is Kyleakin.