I had never been to Scotland in proper Winter conditions so Dusty’s suggestion to head up in late Feb to visit the West coast and stay in a bothy for a couple of nights seemed like a good chance to see snow on the hills. Naturally it was not to be this clearcut. The forecast ebbed and flowed in the week before until we set off in dreary conditions with more grey skies forecast and warmer weather continuing to melt the snow. However the first 24 hrs turned into a massive lesson / reminder in putting yourself out there because if weather in Scotland is anything, it’s changeable and if you are not there you can’t take photos.
The mountains that form the South East ridge from Glen Etive and the Glencoe ski resort
As we headed past Loch Lomond the clouds lowered and drifted around the hills with almost no wind - so importantly some lovely calm conditions on the Loch giving some near perfect reflections- pretty unusual in my experience.
Low clouds drift around the hills of Loch Lomond
We stopped for some photos here - nothing that will make a portfolio but a good start to the trip. We wanted to keep going to get to Glencoe before dark. Which we just managed - stopping on the A82 at dusk at the classic viewpoint at Loch Ba bridge. Normally I like to wander a bit here but it was getting really dark so there was little time - I had to work really quickly, dashing along the road avoiding traffic and was still upping the ISO with 30 sec exposures…
As darkness fell the low clouds / fog started drifting around the mountain - I think looking towards Stob Ghabhar. The darkness and enforced long exposure meant some eery results of swirling cloud here and in the last, slightly adjusted, image.
The following morning we got up for dawn light in Glencoe. Fortunately dawn is not terribly early in February so the lack of early light was not as crushing as it would have been with a painfully early start. However again as we were giving up we had a few minutes of light and cloud so rushed back to the view over the Lagagarbh Cottage, backed by the Buachaille Etive Mor. This was at about 09.30.
The Lagagarbh Cottage (infamous white house of the Glen) sheltered in the lee of the Buachaille
My final shot here is something of a composite. I took the photos of the eagle and stag on this trip - but on our way out of the bothy a few hours drive away. We had a great couple of days there and whilst the photography was not amazing - mainly some winter trees - as we left on the boat we were watched by the stag on the top of a ridge and given a fly-by from the eagle. Where else to put them than in the swirling cloud…
30 sec exposure for the clouds. Not so much for the eagle!