Dugald Stewart Monument on Calton Hill in downtown Edinburgh

Calton Hill :: Edinburgh, Scotland

October 23, 2016 by Hans Mast

We spent our last evening in Scotland on beautiful Calton Hill in downtown Edinburgh. With a short 2 minute walk, you can walk around the edges of the hill getting an incredible view of most of the city. There are half a dozen different views and hundreds (if not thousands) of compositions. Calton Hill is an absolutely essential sunset stop in Edinburgh. It's likely great for sunrise as well, but unfortunately we had to leave for the airport before sunrise.

We had a long, spectacular sunset over Edinburgh

We stayed at the wonderful Sheraton Grand Edinburgh for only 12k points per night. For a hotel that was going for 500 GBP in peak summer season, it was a fantastic value. My Starwood Platinum status gave us lounge access. They have a really beautiful club lounge with a delicious, filling evening supper spread.

The streets of beautiful Edinburgh from the foot of Calton Hill. Handheld A7rII 55mm, f/1.8, ISO 800, 1/60th.

This post is part of a series of posts about my family's British Isles trip in July/August of 2016. My parents and four siblings joined me as we went from London to Dublin and everywhere in between in 2.5 weeks. Here's our itinerary:

London (England)
Stonehenge (England)
Oxford (England)
Bibury, Cotswolds (England)
Wales
Peak District (England)
Chatsworth House (Peak District, England)
Yorkshire and Staithes (England)
Foggy Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
Bright Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
Kilts & Bagpipes (Scotland)
Edinburgh (Scotland)
Northern Ireland
Waterford/Dunmore East (Ireland)
Western Ireland and the Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)
Dublin (Ireland)

Scottish bagpiper and kilt-wearing girl dancers marching out to perform a sword dance

Kilts & Bagpipes :: Callander, Scotland

October 22, 2016 by Hans Mast

As we drove the long drive from Isle of Skye back to Edinburgh for our flight to Ireland the next morning, we passed again through Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park. We stopped in the little town of Callander so the ladies could do a little shopping. The men and others less interested in shopping got some coffee at a coffee shop. And then as we sat sipping our coffee, we heard bagpipes in the distance! So we meandered down the block to the main square where kilt-wearing bagpipers and kilt-wearing dancers took turns doing all sorts of traditional Scottish dances! What a pleasant surprise!

The dancing happened in front of St. Kessog's Church

Cute blond Scottish girl ready and confident

Laying down the swords for the sword dance

London (England)
Stonehenge (England)
Oxford (England)
Bibury, Cotswolds (England)
Wales
Peak District (England)
Chatsworth House (Peak District, England)
Yorkshire and Staithes (England)
Foggy Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
Bright Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
Kilts & Bagpipes (Scotland)
Edinburgh (Scotland)
Northern Ireland
Waterford/Dunmore East (Ireland)
Western Ireland and the Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)
Dublin (Ireland)

The beautiful Neist Point Lighthouse, the most famous scene on Isle of Skye. The little white specks you see on the grass are sheep.

Bright Scottish Highlands :: Isle of Skye, Glencoe, Fort William

October 21, 2016 by Hans Mast

To get to Neist Point, you wend your way to the far backside of the island and the last 4-10 miles (sorry, I'm bad at estimating) are on a one-lane road. You need to keep a sharp eye for oncoming traffic around the sharp curves and pull off at one of the many turnouts. When you arrive, you can either go to the left and down a steep path to the path you see in the above photo and do about an hour roundtrip hike out to the lighthouse. You go down steeply, up shallowly (the main visible part of path in above photo) and then down again to the lighthouse. However, the views on that path are not the greatest. The best views are going off to the right along the ridge and up slightly. That's where the above photo was taken.

Girl in the red coat. This is the view to the SE from the Neist Point parking lot. Neist Point is by far the most spectacular bit in that immediate area, but there are a number of different scenes in the area, every which way you look.

You may have noticed the somewhat odd naming of these last two posts: Foggy Scottish Highlands and Bright Scottish Highlands. That's because while these posts cover many of the same areas, they're just dramatically different depending on the weather! If I go back to the Scottish Highlands to do solely photography, I will definitely take 3-4 days in Isle of Skye, 3-4 days in the Glencoe area, etc to allow the weather to change a bit. As it was, we did get a nice variety of weather despite rushing through both the Isle of Skye and Glencoe areas in 2 days.

Scottish mountain scene along the A82/A87 Glencoe/Isle of Skye road

One thing to be aware of is to budget a bit more time than Google Maps says for driving on Isle of Skye (in particular, but really anywhere in the UK). The roads are extremely narrow and windy and there are large numbers of tourists in high season, so progress will often be frustratingly slow.

My sister Heidi posing amidst the flowers and Scottish mountains with the flower crown she made

Hills of Scotland along the Glencoe Fort William road

Another one of the fantastic scenes along the most beautiful road in Scotland

All of these photos, except the first two taken at Neist Point and this last one (taken in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs) were taken along the A82/A87 in the Glencoe, Fort William, Isle of Skye area.

The beautiful old-fashioned stone rail viaduct near Glenogle, Scotland in the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park.

London (England)
Stonehenge (England)
Oxford (England)
Bibury, Cotswolds (England)
Wales
Peak District (England)
Chatsworth House (Peak District, England)
Yorkshire and Staithes (England)
Foggy Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
Bright Scottish Highlands (Scotland)
Kilts & Bagpipes (Scotland)
Edinburgh (Scotland)
Northern Ireland
Waterford/Dunmore East (Ireland)
Western Ireland and the Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)
Dublin (Ireland)

Foggy Scottish Highlands :: Glencoe, Eilean Donan Castle, Isle of Skye

October 20, 2016 by Hans Mast

The highlight of our trip was probably our journey through the Scottish Highlands. We (accidentally!) spent two nights in the Loch Lomond area and then drove through the Glencoe and Fort William areas up to the Isle of Skye, where we spent a night. This is our route. All these photos were taken within sight of the road.

There were many, many opportunities to stop along the A82 and A87 between Glencoe and Isle of Skye! Here my brother Benji is taking a shot.

Some of our fellow travelers on the Glencoe Road

When we arrived in the Loch Lomond area, when I went to check-in at our hotel, I found to my horror that our reservation was for the following night! In my trip planning, I had carefully booked hotels for each night, except that particular night! So on the bright side, we had one extra day in Scotland. On the dark side, we had no hotel for the night! (And the backdrop was that I had previously spent 8-12 hours trying to find any accommodation in Isle of Skye and failing miserably because it was peak season and EVERYTHING was sold out. I had finally found some rooms at a seedy establishment on the very edge of Isle of Skye, which I was able to book for one night.) So I pulled out my laptop and hopped on the wifi in the lobby and frantically began looking for hotels in the area. I finally found a place one town over. It turned out to be one of the most incredible stays of our whole trip! Achray House was a huge old mansion that had been converted to a hotel. They had a wonderful living room filled with classy red leather furniture with a crackling fire. (I cannot BELIEVE I didn't get any photos of it!) The South African owner was a FANTASTIC host.