Loch Linnhe

An old decommisioned boat on the banks of Loch Linnhe, looking towards Ben Nevis in the distance.

Back to Scotland again, and the mainland this time.

We had decided to stop here on the way up to Skye to shoot the old marooned boat on the shores of Loch Linnhe as a few hadn't done it before and we weren't exactly in a rush..

The weather was grim to say the very least, dreich and generally horrible, raining non stop but hey we were passing so why not !!

As much as I enjoy shooting beautiful sunrises and sunsets that's most definitely not always the case, and if you come to Scotland with that mindset you may as well just not bother full stop ! I hadn't decided wether or not I was going to shoot the boat until we got there, thankfully there was definition in the sky and due to the non stop rain the flow of water into the Loch was enough to enable this shot to be worth it, we were never going to see the top of Ben Nevis but a large portion of the upper slopes covered in snow kept becoming visible so the stuff came out and I shot the scene.

We were all totally soaked here, and probably fairly knackered after a night in the car (although some folk will tell you I had a good sleep) I certainly didn't feel like it !

Scottish folk have a term for this weather - Dreich.

"dreich"

adjective - Scottish (especially of weather) dreary; bleak. "a cold, dreich early April day"

This is Dreich !

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Castle Stalker is picturesquely set just off shore on a tidal islet on Loch Laich near to Portnacroish, Port Appin Scotland. The islet is accessible from the shore at low tide. The Castle is one of the best-preserved medieval Tower-Houses in western Scotland.

A long exposure of Castle Stalker, Scotland

Explore #8 04/03/17

Following on from the last image again at Castle Stalker at sunset, this one was a while after the last image with the sunset in full swing the sun just about to drop behind the horizon at the side of the now almost sillhouetted castle, after the day of weather that had proceeded this there was no way in the world that I expected to get any colour from the sunset let alone this performance which seemingly appeared out of nothing, the thick all day long clouds parting at just the right time to let the glorious late light come pouring through, it was quite a wait to see if anything was going to happen here but so glad I stuck it out, and lets face it there are a lot worse places to be waiting around in!

I'll probably post 1 or 2 more from here as the after glow from the sunset was stunning as well during blue hour, allowing for some very colourful and unsual long exposure images.

I'd really like to get over to that Castle one day and have a look around, for me there's something about islands that makes me want to visit them, probably as they usually look so inaccesible, I imagine anyone trying to attack this Castle in years gone by would have really had their work cut out !!

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The small Hamlet of Camas na Croise is part of the Kingairloch Estate which is located on the western shore of Loch Linnhe just south of Fort William in the Scottish Highlands.

"Camas na Croise" in Kingairloch, Scotland is a remarkably remote place. The nearest settlement is the village of Strontian, some six miles to the north west as the crow flies, but well over twice that far by road. The only roads in or out are single track. One runs for eight miles north along the shore of Loch Linnhe to join the A861 six miles south west of the Corran Ferry. The other leads for five miles west past Loch Uisge to join the A884, 10 miles north of Lochaline.

Castle Stalker is a four-storey tower house or keep, picturesquely set on a tidal islet on Loch Laich, an inlet off Loch Linnhe and was looking as...

They say the weather is very changeable in Scotland , which I've always found to be true, today being no exception, the day started off in a full on blizzard in Glencoe and I didn't even get the camera out at sunrise as you couldn't see a thing, driving was hazardous to say the least as well as just narrowly missed an oncoming lorry on the A82 which had swerved onto my side of the road to avoid a large ice deposit off a previous lorry right into my path, luckily it missed me.

Headed out again after breakfast through it once again and decided to head South towards Taynuilt and Oban, once out of the snow it just didn't stop raining, all day apart from a few moments at Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe where I managed a few shots. After spending the afternoon in Oban I decided to scout out the best vantage point for Castle Stalker for a better day as the advertised viewpoint is really poor in my view, once I found my spot the rain was easing off but the weather was still pretty poor with low cloud, and hardly any light apart from a promising tiny patch
over towards Mull, with nothing spoiling I decided to just wait here on the offchance of a break.

about 40 minutes it really picked up and I was rewarded with what turned out to be a phenomenal sunset, this image was just the start of it before the sun had fully dropped under the large bank of cloud at the top of the frame, the light was just sublime, there is no way you could have envisaged this sunset at the start of the day or even an hour before, just goes to show you really cannot predict the changes in the weather up here off sight alone, I'll post a few more of these images in the coming weeks as they are quite different, the afterglow after sundow was a stunner as well with some great pinks and purples kicking off over the loch. Spent about 2.5 hours here and loved every minute of it, only realised how cold I was once I'd got back to the car!

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I don't normally like to post a lot of shots from one location on the same visit but this one evening at Castle Stalker was quite something and deserves sharing.

A long wait here proved very fruitful after a hideous day weather wise, and just seemed to improve and improve as time went on, one of those rare moments when your patience is fully rewarded and you go home a very happy camper rather than leaving feeling deflated when the dreaded cloud magically appears from nowhere to ruin the sunset.

One of those occasions that reinforces exactly why you stand around for hours in the freezing cold, and why you put yourself through this time and time again, quite simply put - in pursuit of moments like this.

The sun had just dipped behind the horizon here but still was really bright to the left of the Castle, the light spread simply amazing across the loch.

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Abandoned.

Not a lockdown Library image as such but this is over 3 years old and hadn't been touched on the hard drive... apart from liking the actual image, given the current situation we all find ourselves in it seemed very apt to post it now, newer images can maybe wait for a while.

About as an extreme isolation location as you could want, a tiny little Island in a sea loch, with your own Castle to hide away in, away from it all....

This is of course Castle Stalker looking out across the sea to the Isle of Mull, I'd spent several hours along here shooting some fantastic light and had got carried away with the 'golden' images only for this one (from after the sunset) to be completely overlooked, to my mind now I actually prefer this one to the others.

It was freezing cold this February evening and as you can see there wasn't a ripple to be seen which certainly isn't usually the case here, the long exposure being used to take the clouds and really punchy colour right across the sky.

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Stalking the dawn - Castle Stalker on Loch Laich at dawn with first light catching the mountains on Morvern across Loch Linnhe.

Appin, West Coast of...

Thought this kind of sums up things today... :-D The old boat at Corpach once again serves as a great subject and Ben Nevis is not a bad backdrop!

Ben Nevis - the highest mountain in the British Isles. This picture was taken near the Fort William in Scotland.

The beached fishing boat on the shores of Loch Linnhe, at Corpach, with the stunning backdrop of Ben Nevis.

The original castle was a small fort built around 1320 by Clan MacDougall who were then Lords of Lorn. Around 1388 the Stewarts took over the Lordship of Lorn, and it is believed that they built the castle in its present form around the 1440s. The Castle stands in the Lynn of Lorn a National Scenic Area and one of forty such areas in Scotland, Although Castle Stalker is in private ownership it is open to the public at selected times during the summer.

Castle Stalker is picturesquely set on Loch Laich a tidal islet off Loch Linnhe near to Port Appin Scotland. The islet is accessible from the shore at low tide. The Castle is one of the best-preserved medieval Tower-Houses in western Scotland

Mood, rain, light, colour - and an incredible feeling of excitement when all the elements came together...

Sunset at Castle Stalker, Loch Linnhe

The Corpach Shipwreck with the town of Fort William and the snow capped peak of Ben Nevis looming large in the background. An eerie yet strikingly...

Sunday was a very cold morning for our visit to Castle Stalker & as we walked down to the shore there was very little light. Fortunately though a gap...

The classic view of Ben Nevis from Corpach. I've shot this before, and this will replace the old film pano we used to sell. Not the best light to...