A Horizontal Tour of Scotland

[pressld2]

Originally Posted by earthdragon64

The rust on the Birch isn't a rust, it's galls of the mite Eriophyes longisetosus.

Brilliant! Thanks Audrey. That explains why I couldn't find it among the rusts in my fungi books then!

Dave P.

[operanut1972]

Hi Dave,

More cracking shots, for me, your light house at Dunnet head is the best of your landscapes so far. Am I right in thinking the big binned lady is singing now? . I hope you enjoyed your trip as much as I have enjoyed reading about. thank you

[pressld2]

Thanks Steve!

She's taking a deep breath but there's two more days to go. Day 13 should be up tonight if all goes to plan, but then a small gap again while I sort out the photos for the finale.

Dave P.

[lol geoff]

Yay.......Slugs.

Great photos again Dave keep 'em coming.

[nursiebernard]

Dave this thread is absolutely enthralling, each new posting leaves me wanting more. Thanks

Kate

[pressld2]

Day 13, Monday 15th August

I’m up at six-thirty and begin the day with a walk along the cliff top, photographing the sea, the lighthouse, the imposing rock formations, the distant Orkneys and the much closer sea carrot that is flowering in abundance. The fields are awash with meadow pipits, while fulmars are quartering the cliffs and I spot a gannet flying past, low over the sea and skimming the tops of the waves.





As I leave Dunnet Head, I drive very slowly past Long Loch, camera at the ready and scanning for the black-throated diver that was here yesterday evening. Sadly, there’s no sign of him this morning. My plan is to spend the day heading west along the northern coast all the way to Durness, before turning back south. I suspect that today will be more about landscape photography than wildlife, a suspicion that is only reinforced by the vista that greets me at the Bettyhill viewpoint.



These are by no means the highest mountains in Scotland but Ben Hope is no slouch at 927 metres and the distant Foinaven is also over 900 metres.

While I’m working I’ve noticed a waterfall away to my left. As it’s only three or four hundred yards away I lock the car and go for a stroll across the rocks and heather. A stream is cascading down a gorge from a high loch, forming a series of pools with waterfalls of varying sizes between them. The sides of the gorge are very steep, cliffs in fact, but eventually I find a place where I can get down to the water level. It’s notbrilliant for photography though, as it’s the wrong time of day. Much of the canyon is in deep shadow, and shooting the waterfall upstream means shooting into the sun. Looking in the opposite direction I can only photograph the pool and the water disappearing over the edge, not the waterfall itself. I do the best I can before returning to the car and continuing on my way.



Ten minutes later, just after passing through the village of Bettyhill itself, I round a bend in the road to find and a scene of green hills rolling down to pristine beaches lapped by a turquoise sea. It could almost be the Med or the Caribbean. It’s Torrisdale Bay and, as the rest of the day will teach me, most of the beaches along Scotland’s north coast look like this when the sun shines.



My next stop is to photograph the view from Coldbackie across the Bay of Tongue to the Rabbit Islands.



While here I notice "Mainland Britain’s Most Northerly Small Tortoiseshell" feeding on a thistle and photograph both insect and flowers with the sea and islands as a backdrop.



Just a few miles further on I cross the causeway over the Kyle of Tongue and stop half way for another go at a panoramic sequence. This one is a full 180° sweep comprised of fifteen images.



I'm still taking some individual frames too, just in case the stitching doesn't work.



I’ve now driven past Ben Hope and stop to photograph it from the other side, this time with Loch Hope in the foreground.



While I’m wading through the heather back to the car I disturb a hawker dragonfly and track it carefully until it lands again. I sneak up on it, cursing that once again I have left my back pack with macro lens and flashes in the car. I’ll just have to cope with my wide zoom at the 85mm end and natural light. It focuses close enough for a dragonfly this size and I prefer natural light anyway if I can get away with it. It’s a common hawker with bright yellow leading edges to its wings.



After one more brief stop to take a view of Loch Eriboll from Heilan...


(I want to live in that house.)

...I promise myself I won’t stop again before Durness. With just four and a half miles to go, I break that promise at a place called Ceannabeinne (no I don’t know how to pronounce it either). This has got to be the most stunning beach I have ever seen, bar none.

[pressld2]

It has beautiful clean sand so pale it’s almost white, impressive rock formations, and a turquoise sea breaking in white foam. It has rock pools and there’s even a cave. And what’s more, it’s about half a mile long and I’m the only soul on it. Incredible! I spend nearly two hours here just exploring, taking views of the beach, images of the waves, stalking the turnstones (no luck) and photographing a beadlet anemone in a rock pool.





I could happily stay for another two hours but there are rain clouds on the distant horizon and I still want to visit Durness proper.

I’ve been advised that the coastal path through the golf course (you’ve guessed it – "Mainland Britain’s Most Northerly") is the one to take. I start off with my 80-400 fitted as I’m hoping mainly for seabirds. I have the rain sleeve over it as a few showers have started although they are still interspersed with bright sunshine. I spot a cormorant diving for fish and grab a few shots of him when he surfaces.



Walking on again, I come across a fritillary that looks the same as the one I failed to photograph in the Findhorn valley. As usual I have the wrong lens on but I take a couple of record shot with the 80-400 before shrugging off my backpack and fishing out the macro lens, all the while keeping an eye on the butterfly in case he flies. He’s busy working the multiple florets of a devil’s bit scabious and is going nowhere.



There are some blues here in the grass and I get shots of a tatty male and a much more presentable female.



Eventually this path arrives at yet another of those fabulous beaches – not quite on a par with Ceannabeinne, but close. And once again devoid of humanity. I can’t stop on this one though as it’s already half past five and I have a three hour drive back to Aviemore ahead of me. Longer if I keep stopping to take scenic shots, which I probably will.

Heading back to the car I find evidence that Canadians have been here before me. Someone has built a small but perfectly formed inuksuk on the cliff top...



Rounding Foinaven, I see two large birds of prey in the air that don’t look like buzzards, but I only get a glimpse of them and they’re high up with nothing to give them scale. By the time I find somewhere safe to pull over I’ve lost them and am unable to confirm my suspicion that they were golden eagles.

I stop briefly to photograph Loch Nan Ealachan and again just a few miles further on where a white house is nestling below the mountains on the opposite shore of Loch More.


(I've changed my mind, I want to live in that house!)

By the time I reach Loch Merkland it’s nearly eight o’clock and the sun is getting low. I take some shots looking back up the loch, with the sun’s rays pouring out from behind a cloud, reflecting off the water and lighting up the ever present rosebay willowherbs in the foreground.



Aviemore is roughly halfway between Durness and Dunbar (which is where the boat for Bass Rock leaves from tomorrow) and rather than look for a new place to spend the night I return to the Loch Mallachie car park. There are two campervans here tonight but it’s still very quiet.

Dave P.

[Pete Collins]

Dave, I don't know how much the Scottish Tourist Board are paying you, but it's not enough!

Your gorgeous shots along the north coast remind me of my only Scottish holiday about 20 years ago.

[operanut1972]

I thought you'd slipped up and put in a picture of your last European holiday snap, that Ceannebeinnie sounds Italian. Lol. Stunning shots, if this is the warm up the finale should be good. Keep it coming, those panorama's are stunning, tech helps but you have to get the shooting right to start with. Well done . I'm jealous.

Ps

Whilst I agree both houses are set in beautiful locations, not sure I'd want to face a gale in either

[artdemole]

All those shots.You must have a wonderful album.