Photos and the City

Category: Nature

Loch Ness

Loch Ness – the home of Nessi and cute vintage cars. And my last stop before heading back home via Edinburgh. After my afternoon at the Black Isle Natalie drove me to my little hut in Drumnadrochit at the shores of Loch Ness.

Once again I was staying with a fellow photographer Margaret who does the most beautiful landscape photography around Scotland.

I started to walk towards Urquhart Castle hoping there would be fewer visitors in the evening, with my Historic Scotland membership the entrance was free anyway. And it was a great walk looking down on Loch Ness.

Loch Ness

Famous for its monster Nessi, Loch Ness is a large and deep freshwater loch near Inverness. It is the second-largest loch in Scotland after Loch Lomond and it is the second deepest loch in Scotland after Loch Morar – by volume it is the biggest one.

There are many theories about Nessie, is it a dinosaur or a very big eel, does it really exist? Unfortunately, I didn´t see a sign of the monster.

Tales of a large monster living deep beneath the dark expanses of Loch Ness have circulated the world since the first photograph emerged in 1933. With over 1,000 eye-witness accounts, sightings and unexplained evidence, scientists continue to be baffled by the existence of Nessie. (Visit Scotland)

After about 25/30 minutes of walking, I got the first sight of Urquhart Castle and still had enough time to explore it properly. More about it next time!

Drumnadrochit

The next day I walked into the village to book a boat trip and get some coffee. It was relatively early and Drumnadrochit was still quiet. It is a lovely little village, very dedicated to Nessie!

Lots of souvenir shops and lots of Nessies. I got my coffee and booked a boat trip, which was just great. I choose one of the small boats, we were a group of six or seven people plus our captain, who told us many tales about the Loch and his mysterious monster.

Next to Urquhart Castle, which looks amazing from the loch, we got some company. But no Nessie was seen!

09/06/2020
Black Isle

The Black Isle is neither black nor an isle but a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water near Inverness. I had returned my car at Inverness and met Natalie who showed me a bit of the Black Isle while photographing some portraits of her.

The Black Isle is another wonderful place to explore Scottish nature and see the wildlife, dolphins, otter, deer, seals and osprey – they all enjoy it here.

One of the region’s great draws is its pod of resident bottlenose dolphins. At Chanonry Point, in between Fortrose and Rosemarkie, they can often be seen frolicking in the Moray Firth. (VisitScotland)

We actually went to Chanonry Point, enjoy the view towards the Moray Coast but no dolphins were seen.

During our time on the Black Isle, we had one or two little rain showers and enjoyed the beautiful dramatic sky!

Definitely another spot in Scotland I want to explore further another time!

02/06/2020
Hilton of Cadboll Stone

It´s been a long day already but there was one last spot I wanted to visit before driving to my place for the night in Ardgay – the Pictish stone (cross): Hilton of Cadboll Stone on the East coast of the Tarbat Peninsula in Easter Ross.

Just a short walk through the fields and suddenly there is the view of the sea and the replica of the Hilton of Cadboll Stone, a Pictish cross. Left to the cross are the overgrown remains of “Our Lady´s Chapel”. The original cross was carved around 800 AD.

The cross-slab’s had a chequered history. Carved around AD 800, it soon apparently snapped at the tenon – the extension lodged in the ground to hold it upright – and toppled. It was re-erected, using the lower part of the stone as the tenon, and stood until 1674, when it broke again in a strong wind. (Historic Environment Scotland)

Alexander Duff had the stone reworked in 1676 and used it as a gravestone, one side of the carvings were destroyed and replaced by an inscription.

Our Lady´s Chapel

The upper section of the cross-slab was found next to the chapel in the 19th century. Today the remains of this small rectangular chapel lie in the field next to the cross hidden under the turf.

In Hilton of Cadboll a chapel dedicated to the Virgin ‘Our Lady’s Chapel’ was mentioned in 1610.

The remains of Hilton of Cadboll Chapel imply a simple, rectangular medieval chapel. There is a tradition of the site being used for the burial of unbaptised infants until the end of the 1800s. By 1856 the chapel was being used as a shed. (Historic Environment Scotland)

26/05/2020