Author: Tony Tomlinson

Day 3 (Continued)

Our next stop after the Elphin Bothy was the Allt Chranaidh Waterfall, also known as the Wailing Widow Falls. There is a small, very small area to park on the side of A894 road, from where you can see the stream that comes from the waterfall, the volume of water flowing down this stream did not look too promising. We then trekked along the path which followed the stream for 15 minutes of so, the path was not the easiest to follow in parts, but manageable. As we rounded a bend of the stream we saw the waterfall for the first time, and wow, what a sight. The waterfall was huge and by God there was a sizable volume of water cascading down the falls. The waterfall plunges about 50 feet down from a rocky cliff into a pool below. As we spread out, all looking for a decent position to photograph the falls, it was quite awe-inspiring to feel the force of the water hitting the pool at the bottom of the falls, and us being constantly covered in the spray from the water as it was thrown up and about. As any person would do, I began by trying to capture the grand vista, but I soon became more interested in the detail of the water as it hit the various ledges in the bottom third of the falls, I was photographing these in colour, but the images are virtually black and white. I was very pleased with some of these detailed images.

By the time we returned to the bus, Dean told us that we would head back to Stoer Beach to get some shots of the larger waves which should be prevalent due to the increasing winds, the bonus of this would be that we would not have far to travel back to the house for our evening meal.

Once parked at Stoer Bay, we headed to the beach, this being a broad bay with the waves battering the shore. I found a bench seat which overlooked the scene, so I set about capturing an image including this item. From there I walked up a small incline which was covered in high Marran Grass, here I wanted to create a bit of foreground interest and use the shape of the Marran Grass to frame the shot.

Once we were all content with the images we took, we headed back to the house to have a wash, change into clean dry clothing and sample another of Lucy’s lovely meals. Post meal was spent relaxing and chatting about the day’s activities and what we thought about the images we had taken. After another long day, it wasn’t long until I drifted off to bed for a good night’s sleep, as day 4 was going to be another early start.

Day 4.

A 5.30 am, the alarm woke me, giving me time to get ready, and enjoy another very nice cooked Scottish breakfast. This morning was 3-hour journey northwards, up to Durness, but onwards across the north of Scotland to several new locations.

Our fist stop-off was to be at Moine House, this was quite a distance past Durness, and we passed some outstanding beaches on the way, more on these later. Moine House is a ruined house on the vast expanse of boggy moorland between the Kyle of Tongue and Loch Hope, which serves as both a useful reference point and focal point in an otherwise bare landscape. Intended as a halfway house for weary travelers crossing the bog, it was also a family home and in 1881 it housed three generations, totaling four adults and five grandchildren. The last occupant seems to have been one of the grandchildren who was three years old in 1881.

From Moine House we travelled eastwards to Loch Eriboll, here Dean suggested we head along the headland which would provide a grand vista looking along the Loch and emphasise the lone cottage on the small headland that reaches out into the Loch. Loch Eriboll is a 16 km (9.9 mi) long sea loch on the north coast of Scotland, which has been used for centuries as a deep-water anchorage as it is safe from the often-stormy seas of Cape Wrath and the Pentland Firth. The Royal Navy have been frequent visitors to the loch, particularly during World War II. There are stones arranged by sailors into the names of their warships, including HMS Hood and Amethyst, on the hillside above the hamlet of Laid. It was nicknamed “Lock  Orrible” by the British servicemen stationed here during the war because of the often-inclement weather.

As we headed around the headland we were hit by the very strong offshore wind, this becoming so strong that I had to hold on to the tripod when taking photographs, even when standing in front of the tripod to act as a windbreak. Upon viewing several of the images which I took at Loch Eriboll these were not perfectly sharp, as disappointing as I was, we still visited an outstanding location, one which I would never have found if I was left to my own devices.

 

Our next location was to the stunning Ceannabeine Beach, this dramatic gently sloping beach with its cliffs of pink rock is only a short walk from the car park on the A838. The beach was once known as Traigh Alt Chailgeag, “The beach of the burn of bereavement and death” which tells the story of a lady who died after falling in the burn and was found on the beach. The beach has spectacular views of the island of Eilean Hoan, the burial island, which is now a nature reserve. Sir Walter Scot, the famous novelist visited Ceannabeine in 1814. The historic harbour of Rispond, built in 1788, is a short walk over the hill from the beach. There is a zip wire that travels along the beach, although this was closed when we were there. The view form high up on the surrounding cliffs were stunning, acers of golden whit sand, turquoise-coloured waters, and substantially sized waves which were being blown backwards by the strong offshore winds. I concentrated on capturing some images from the viewpoint on the cliffs, before walking down on to the sands, it was only then that I was battered by the brutal offshore winds. This did become a substantial problem, as I needed to keep the sand and spray away from the camera and lenses, quite a challenge.The waves were an immediate draw; these were brilliantly coloured with streams of spray being blew rearwards. I traversed the full width of the beach, ending up at the eastern end where there were some gorgeous, coloured stacks, these just had to be photographed.

In total we were at and on Ceannabeine Beach for over three hours, we could have stayed even longer. Quite simply an outstanding location.

We grabbed some food and drinks in the car park overlooking the beach, where the conversation was about the shear beauty of this place.

Once fed and watered, we loaded into the transit for the 3 hours plus journey back to the house via our final location for the day at Loch Assynt.

Upon arriving at Loch Assynt, we were located further along the Loch to photograph some lovely small islands which had old or dead trees growing on them. We were very lucky as these islands were intermittently illuminated by glorious side light.

To get to a viewpoint of these islands it needed a hike across some boggy but uneven ground. At this location I had arranged a composition there was some considerable time waiting for the light to arrive, but the final images fully justified this waiting.

Day 5

This was planned to be a shorter day as Day 4 had been a very long, but enjoyable day. Having said that, the day began with a short pre sunrise drive to Stoer Bay to capture a lovely, placed cottage which overlooks the bay, The forecast was projecting a possible sunrise colour show, so we were all eager to be in position to capture what we seen.

I was set up on a small mound to place the cottage on the third intersection of the image and include the dry-stone walls as leading lines/foreground interest. I took a couple of blue hour shots, which I was very pleased with, but we were waiting for the colour in the sky, we waited, and waited, we were at the point where we were about to accept that the sunrise was not going to be the best, when hey-ho, the colour arrived, for a 10 minute period the sky suddenly illuminated with lovely pink colures, what a time, what a place to be.

We all agreed that this morning, the location and conditions were well worth the early alarm call.

From here we headed back to the house for a well-deserved breakfast, very content that we had captured some quality photographs.

After breakfast we headed for Achmelvich, Dean explained that this was the first location he photographed when he moved to the highlands, and it was easy to understand why, the beaches were sublime, with turquoise-coloured waters again.

Achmelvich as two beaches, these being divided by a rocky outcrop, we headed for the far beach, and what views we were greeted with, even though it was an overcast morning the colour of the sea and sand blew me away.

This was a special location, which deserved some time to capture the views of it, probably that is why we spent nearly 3 hours here.

On the way to Clachtoll we were to call into a famous pie shop in Lochinvar, The Lochinvar Larder, they bake fresh pies every day and produce some hearty home cooked meals. Needless to say, none of us were disappointed with the food, it was scrumptious. We need some time for the food to digest before we set off to Clachtoll.

Clachtoll Beach

We arrived at Clachtoll Beach in time for sunset and to find that the conditions were so, so different from our previous visit. The Assynt mountains could be seen in the distance, all illuminated by the golden glow of the setting sun. The Split Rock was bathed in golden light which highlighted the different colours and shapes of the rock. I then headed along the shoreline towards the headland, and what I found was amazing, I thought that I was approaching a cliff, but Gary encouraged me to get closer to the edge, and what a surprise it was, nit a shear cliff face, but a 45 degree slope all the way down to the waters edge, in essence, a repeat of the Split Rock conditions.

The sun was by now fast approaching the horizon, so I tried to incorporate this into to the rock formations which I have described, sadly my efforts were no the best, but they are a memory to me of what a fantastic sunset experience this was.

Day 6.

First location of the day was to the Assynt Stone Viewpoint, where we hoped to capture some early morning images of Suilven and the surrounding mountains, only to find that all the mountains were hidden by the low-lying clouds. I did manage to get a half decent image of Suilven hidden in cloud, but with a moody element to the photo.

From the viewpoint we headed for the Elphin Bothy again as the light was far better than the first visit. I again got some remote looking images of this lovely location.

From here we travelled the short distance to Lochan an Ais where I used a small spring and the grass on the Lochan shore as foreground interest when looking towards the Assynt mountains.

Our next location was to the Stac Pollaidh viewpoint, it was here that I captured some of the best atmospheric photos of the trip. Conditions were not ideal, a strong wind driving rain clad clouds across the sky, this meant that we would get wet at regular intervals but produced some exquisite lighting on the scene, so all it entailed was, pick a composition, then wait for the weather conditions to provide the lighting conditions that you wanted.

I set off using the road as a leading line towards Stack Pollaidh set in a portrait orientation, the lighting was special.

From here I moved across the road on to the top of a little mound which produced a great view of the valley with Stack Pollaidh in the distance, again I was dodging the rain showers to wait for the light to arrive, again I got some great photos.

Dean then suggested that I would maybe like to move to incorporate some rocks in the foreground but had lines in them heading off towards Stack Pollaidh, this location produced some very good photographs for me.  Yes, we got wet, and were cold, but the conditions produced some very good photographs for us.

The weather was visibly worsening, with low level cloud cover, more constant rain and drizzle which produced flat dull lighting conditions, so Dean suggested we head for Bardentarbet Pier where we could get a nice cup of tea or coffee in a unique café. The décor of this building was amazing, a mixture of all things old and fishing related, the lady serving the tea and coffee was very friendly and gave us loads of information about the building, why it was created and the plans for the Summer Islands which are privately owned.

The weather was improving, ever so slightly on the coast, so Dean suggested we headed in land a little to Coigach to see if we could get some shots across the bay looking towards the Assynt mountains. Unfortunately, when we arrived the weather gods were not behaving, driving rain, low cloud and flat light greeted us. We all got out to take photographs, but the conditions were against us, I will show you one of mine below.

Dean, being the optimist, suggested we drive a certain route in the hope that we would bump into some better weather, we drove, and drove, but conditions were worsening. The obvious decision was made, head back to the house as the weather was pretty foul by now.

So, we brought our 6-day adventure to an end, not in the best way, but this did not detract from the whole experience.

I had a warm shower and got changed to begin packing and loading up the car for the return homeward journey the next morning.

The evening meal on the last night was a general chat on how we had found the workshop, what we had got from it, and generally chatted about our thoughts of the week.

As I was the first to set off the next morning, I said my farewells incase I did not sea everyone the following morning.

The Last Morning.

I got up at 6 am to load up the car and empty my room. Lucy was making a lovely bacon sandwich and Gary some porridge for me.

Just before I left the house for the 8.5-hour journey home, we said our farewells. Driving away from the house on my own had me reflecting on the weeks workshop. The whole experience had been very enjoyable, the group were all very friendly and easy to get on with, the accommodation was excellent, the food was scrumptious, and Dean had been a very good leader throughout, what more could you ask of a workshop?

Conclusion

Personally, I found the whole experience very worthwhile, the cost of the workshop was what it was, and yes, some would say it was expensive, but when you consider what we got out of the experience, in my opinion it was very worthwhile.

We got the knowledge and guidance of Dean Allan Photography, he (and Gary) drove us from location to location, many of these that I was not aware of and would not have found. Lucy and Gary provide us with three meals a day, which I found to be extremely enjoyable, they even accommodated any dietary needs wherever possible.

The company of the group was great; we were all like-minded people who wanted similar aims from the week.

Dean was very approachable, friendly and knowledgeable about the local area and all things photography.

Did I find the experience worthwhile? Defiantly, and I would highly recommend one of Deans Allan Workshops if you are in a similar situation to me, i.e., love photography, have not visited the area before, would like to visit local locations, and have the support of a very competent professional photographer, then go ahead and book a trip.

Thank you for finding the time to read this blog (split into two parts) and I hope you have found it interesting and enjoyed looking at my images from the trip.

Until next time, stay safe.