Pictures I’ve taken and, very occasionally, others I’ve seen
There’s been so much snow and cold weather lately, not least up in the hills, that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the camping side of our weekend away on the west coast. And waking up most mornings with frost on the tent (see above) was a sign of how cold it was. As was…
I hate the word “remote”. It is patronising and culturally biased, because inherent in the use of word “remote” is the rarely added follow-up “…from…”. In other words, somewhere is deemed remote only in the context of another place. And there lies the flaw: because if you swap starting points, it is the other place…
I’d long heard of Clachtoll beach. It is often referred to as one of Scotland’s best beaches, with a stunning location on the west coast of Sutherland. I was vaguely aware of there being a good campsite too, but I’d never been to the area and didn’t really know much about it. Then, when planning…
Given the recent weeks of freezing cold weather, including some very unseasonal snow, going camping and hiking this past weekend was probably on the face of it a silly idea. However, I was really glad Nicole and I stuck to our plans. The weather was – apart from the very cold nights – absolutely superb,…
The problem with agreeing to go hillwalking on a certain date is that you can’t wimp out when the weather forecast is rubbish. Our plan was to do the Coulags circuit, which runs northwest from near Achnashellach. According to MWIS the prognosis was not good, though: below zero temperatures at summits, and as low as…
We did a ten mile walk in the Cairngorms today. It was a lovely clear day, but bitterly cold above the snow line. Our destination was Meall a’ Bhuachaille and Creagan Gorm, a corbett and long plateau that made for a scenic circular walk of about six hours. You can read about the route at Walk…
I’ve been trying to get out as much as possible at weekends of late. Uncharacteristically good weather has made it all the more motivating to get out and explore the beautiful surroundings that lie just a short distance away from Inverness. Three recent walks have rendered some half-decent photos. Moray Firth coast at Balintore I…
Inverness boasts a lovely circular walk of a couple of hours or so that takes in the River Ness, the Ness Islands, the shores of the Beauly Firth, and the Caledonian Canal. Only it doesn’t really boast it. It’s not well-known or advertised as a single circular walk, but it is admittedly easy to put…
Having friends to stay (as we did over New Year) is always a good excuse to get out and about and go exploring. Inverness and the wider Highlands is cold and dark through the winter, but that brings out a gloomy and at times almost ethereally strange light. Here are a few photos from Glen…
I used to visit London regularly, mainly for work, which gave me a great chance to see friends and explore all the different parts of the city where they lived. With time spent in London either in work mode or seeing friends mode, I rarely did “touristy” stuff, and on the rare occasions I have…
A great advantage of multi-leg rail travel is that you can, if you wish, spend a couple of hours in your interchange cities along the way. It’s something you just can’t do when flying, because the hassle of fighting your way out of the airport, finding transport, and then getting back in time to have…
Pretty much anywhere in Luxembourg City is close to a cliff. The heart of the upper town (la Ville Haute, which I’ve explored in my previous post) is built on a network of long fingers of rock that tower over the low town (la Ville Basse) and the two rivers that run through it. Quieter…
Topographically, Luxembourg City is a diverse place considering its size. The city grew up around a gorge through which the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers flow, and the high and low parts (la Ville Haute and la Ville Basse) are separated by imposing cliffs, the gorge crossed in several places by huge bridges (like the one…
I’ve always been drawn to little countries. You know, the sorts of places that are so small that there’s only room for two symbols on their television weather forecasts. Perhaps it’s due to being Scottish or growing up on an island, but there’s something quite captivating about a small nation that exists independently and sustains…
You know you’re in a unique place when you’re watching an exploration of gay experiences of spirituality told through the mediums of poetry and dance, and where one of the poems has the quite magnificent title of: “The visit of the Queen of the Lesbians to the gay men’s prayer group in West Belfast”. Not…
It’s easy to be complacent about where you live, as you see it through the prism of everyday life. That’s a shame, especially when the place you live is as lovely as the area around Inverness. It was one of the things I enjoyed about hosting Couchsurfers regularly until a few years ago, in that…
Given it sits among comparatively flat landscape (by Highlands standards), it doesn’t take much for Inverness to be towered over. That’s why Ben Wyvis, over half an hour’s drive away, is a dominant feature in Inverness, especially in the popular views across town to the north from the castle. There, seemingly just at the mouth of…
This past weekend, Nicole and I were away hillwalking with a group of friends from Glasgow. Our base was a hostel near Roy Bridge, and our route was Corrour to Spean Bridge. The start and end points lie on the famous and beautiful Glasgow to Mallaig train line, and so we headed by train to…
Nicole and I were in Skye this weekend, for a few days of seeing family, walking and exploring. In a refreshing break from the drizzle and grey skies we’ve been experiencing in Inverness of late, it was near-unbroken sunshine out west. This was good news for photographs, and I’ve uploaded a bundle to Flickr.
In another piece of local history I knew nothing about until I visited its site, here are some photos from Ormond Castle, which I walked around the other weekend. It’s not really a castle any more – in fact, not even “not really”, more “not at all”. It’s just a hill, flat at the top,…