Author: Tony Tomlinson

Right after Christmas we took ourselves off to Glencoe for a few nights stay, it’s a beautiful part of the world, we love staying at the Kingshouse Hotel, and I was planning to fit some photography in at sometime during our stay.

The weather forecast was far from pleasant, but you must expect some inclement weather in the Scottish Highlands in the middle of winter.

Day One

Upon arriving at the hotel, it was a right “peasouper” thick mist, overcast and substantial rain falling, brilliant, but once we settled into the hotel, I took off out for a short hike along on of the tributaries of the river etive, up towards the glencoe ski center. I had included the Cauldron Falls in my plans of places to shoot, but I wanted to go higher up the burn, then follow its path back to the hotel, the thought being that I would find some new and original compositions as I went along.

After a bit of huffing and puffing, slogging along the peat bog, I finally reached the river, all I had to do now was get my breath back and take the leisurely walk along its banks.

I soon came across an interesting small waterfall, which would have made an excellent leading line to the Buachaille Etive Mor, if you could see it. The mist and overcast conditions really restricted the inclusion of any background interest.

Here I go again, never happy with what nature provides us, are all photographers like this? (let me know with a comment)

I set up but I was soon losing the battle to keep everything dry, the back of my bag was soon soaked, the lens cloths that I was carrying were becoming soaking wet, and I was easily losing the battle to keep the front of my camera lens dry.

Still, you battle on, don’t you? Once I captured a couple of images, I packed up and off I set, along the riverbank looking for another composition.

I came across a section of the river which split into two, where I found a huge lichen covered rock which made an interesting foreground character. So, the battle against the elements resumed, me, the equipment getting wetter by the minute, an element of frustration creeping into my work, and a few well-chosen words to myself.

I next arrived at the Cauldron Falls, a place where I have visited on many occasions, as there was a lot more water flowing over these than the last time that I was here, I set up and took a few images, sadly though the magnificent background could not ne included due to the miserable weather.

I was not too long before I decided to pack up and head back towards the West Highland Way, which would get me back to the warm and dry hotel, but to achieve this I has another, but shorter, slog across the peat bog, but as I began this torturous path, I captured a image of the quite frankly appalling conditions with hotel sitting below the mist, quite an atmospheric image some would say, what do you think?

Once back at the hotel, I was soon showered and changed into dry clothing, the camera bag was emptied with everything laid out to dry before tomorrow’s entertainment begins.

Day Two

Believe it, or not the weather forecast was right, we woke to worse weather than the days before.

As we sat eating breakfast, the weather outside was bleak, and I mean bleak, nearly horizontal rain being driven by 30 mph plus winds, the rain battering of the restaurant windows.

I studied the weather forecast, which showed that the winds were due to drip by mid-morning, and the rainfall should reduce, so I being the positive one, packed up my camera bag, sorted out my wet weather gear and waited for this to happen.

I eventually convinced myself that the weather had improved, in hindsight, I am sure this was a false dawn on my part.

I headed for the Meeting of the Three Waters in Glencoe, because if the worse came to the worse, I could get under the A82 bridge to shoot the falls, and keep dry, it might be dark under there, but I could work around this.

And so it came to be, me under the main A82 road, trying to shoot the waterfall. I tried differing shutter speeds, lens lengths etc to try and secure a decent image.

 

Once a crawled form under the bridge I decided to take the short hike over the road, and get above the waterfalls, I had never been up there, so it would be new ground for me, and help me capture more original shots.

Once on top of the falls, I realised how strong the wind was, and how heavy the rain was falling again. And, so, it began again, the battle of finding a composition, setting up, and trying to keep everything reasonably dry, I had brought along a umbrella today, in the hope that this would help shelter the camera from the worst of the rain, but this proved useless, as the strength of the wind continually blew inside out.

 

Once I took a few shots looking over the top of the falls, the A82 bridge and the overhanding mountains, I set off on a hike along the river up to the higher areas of the river.

This turned out to be a good idea, from which I identified many interesting options for the future to come back and photograph, but not today in these conditions.

I found a little hidden waterfall which deserved more time to investigate the best composition, but to be honest, my enthusiasm was at a low point today.

So, again, wet, cold and miserable I set off back to the car, once out of my wellies and wet clothing, I had a talk to myself and decide to drive further down the Glen to see if there was anything worth shooting.

You know the answer, don’t you? No there wasn’t, so I made the return trip to the hotel and repeated the same exercise as the day before, in drying my equipment and clothing.

Day Three

Believe it or not today was worse than the previous two days, the burn running towards the hotel was about to bust its banks, and the main river was roaring.

This was an easy decision, definitely no photography today, but we did take a reconnaissance journey out in the car to view what conditions were like higher up, and lower down the Glen.

We were very surprised that in Glencoe village the wind was virtually non-existent, and the rain being know-where as heavy as it was higher up the Glen, so we decided to take a 30/40-minute walk around Glencoe Lochan, at least we got some fresh air and a little exercise, but no photography for today.

I did manage to get some photos of some dear that were roaming around not far from the hotel

So, back to the hotel for the remainder of the day, time for some food and liquid refreshment.

Journey Home

We awoke to the rain battering on the bedroom window and the wind was howling around the exterior of the hotel. A quick view out of the window gave us quite a shock, the burn which run’s down towards the hotel from the Glencoe ski center had burst its banks and flooded quite a large area of land leading form the hotel up to the main road, in fact a large section of the road was now under water.

Once in the restaurant for breakfast the River Etive had also bust its banks and had flooded large expanses of peat land on each side of the river.

We packed and checked out of the hotel, only to get soaking wet loading up the car. The journey home was going to be an eventful one.

We drove home from 10am to 3.30pm in what were supposed to be daylight hours, the cars headlights were on for the whole journey.

Back home safe and sound and looking forward to the next visit to glencoe already, whenever that may be.

Until next time, stay safe and enjoy what you do.