Scottish Tour Guide's Blog

 

 This evening, I am posting information on Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. The name is derived from a British military fort originating in the 17th and 18th centuries which was built to control the Highlands. Specifically, it is named after King William (1650-1702).

Fort William has a reputation as a centre for outdoor activities including hiking, climbing, skiing and mountain biking. It is a good base for touring the area and provides access to Glenfinnan and Skye, Glencoe, Glen Nevis  the Great Glen to Loch Ness , the Caledonian Canal and the ‘Harry Potter’  train. Close by is Ben Nevis, Scotland’s tallest mountain (4406ft.) which is accessible to most able bodied persons.

In the immediate vicinity can be found Inverlochy Castle, Loch Linnhe, Ben Nevis Distillery and Glen Nevis. There is also Aonoch Mor  chair lift which provides a 15 min trip up into the mountains with the reward of stunning views.

Here is Inverlochy Castle.

 Here is Ben Nevis Distillery. Tours are available.

 Here is a view of the Nevis range of mountains which include Ben Nevis

 

Fort William invariably features in my tours of the Western Highlands.

This evening, I am focusing on the somewhat bleak and rugged Rannoch Moor which lies south of the Great Glen fault below Glencoe. Key features:

• Comprises a plateau at 1200 ft surrounded by mountains rising to between 2500ft and 3500 ft.
• Underlain by granite and features a number of small, irregular lakes which were formed by severe glacial erosion. These lakes are separated by collections of glacial debris.
• The Moor was where the last major ice sheet to cover Scotland began to form about 25,000 years ago and also where it was finally extinguished about 10,000 years ago.
• The ice moved along the valleys which radiate out from Rannoch Moor to the north-east (Speyside), east (Tayside), south (Firth of Clyde) and west (Loch Linnhe).
• Each year hundreds of thousands of visitors traverse this Moor travelling to/from Glencoe  many of whom may not appreciate the geological significance of the site.

As will be evident from the images provided here, the winter does present excellent opportunities for landscape photography when the right combination of weather conditions are present.

 

 

 

 

 This evening I have complied a composite of the first two days of a recent photography tour of Scotland during winter. At end of day 1 the town where we stayed had no electricity and hence I was unable to collate and post images which in turn placed my blogging sequence in arrears. Tonight’s exercise is a ‘catch up’.

After collecting guest at Edinburgh Airport we drove north-west past Doune Castle (above) to Callander where we had a brief stop for photographs and refreshments. 

 Next we continued through Strathtyre, Crainlarich and on to Rannoch Moor passing through some interesting Trossachs scenery en-route.

 

 Rannoch Moor provided some wonderful photo opps.

 

 

 After Rannoch Moor, we cotinued north through Glencoe, one of Scotland’s most stunning scenic areas.

 On arriving at Corran on Loch Linnhe we took the ferry and then continued on the west side of the loch up to Glenfinnan and then our final destination of Mallaig where there was no elctricity due to the recent hurricane strength gales.

After a cold night with no hot water we caught the 8.40am ferry to Armadale, Skye which took us past the spectacular Knoydart Peninsula- and more photo opps.

 On arrival on Skye we stopped first at Knock Castle and then Isleornsay.

 

 Further on we stopped for pics of a small herd of Highland Cattle  before going on to Kyleakin and its ruined castle.

 

 Next, we travelled across the Skye Bridge to Kyle of Lochalsh and then a short distance to the famous Eilean Donan Castle- and more photographs.

 

 Next, we continued trough increasingly wintry Highland scenery via Glen Shiel, Invergarry and Loch Laggan.

 

 

 On arriving at Pitlochry, we called in briefly at Edradour Distillery, Scotland’s smallest such whisky producer but just missed the last tour of the day.

 

Finally we drove on south and then west, first to Aberfeldy and finally to our destination of Kenmore on the northern tip of Loch Tay.

Overall, a great 2 days during we benefited from a very fortunate combination of winter scenery and sunshine- ideal for photography.