Mental Reset
Saturday 12th June 2021
One of my favourite spots in Glen Coe to just sit and watch the world go by, situated directly across from the Hidden Valley between two of the three sisters (Bidean nam Bian mountain range) in the Glen Coe Pass
The Scottish landscape is such a phenomenal place. Wild, rugged, harsh and often unforgiving but even still it manages to be the most majestic, peaceful, forgiving and beautiful place on earth, a place of wondrous contradictions.
It's one of those places that on a beautiful early summer day in one of these many scenic spots in the Scottish Highlands it can be so busy that you can't find a parking spot for love nor money but once parked can still somehow find yourself walking with not a single sole around. This is the place that the words peace and tranquillity were invented to describe. A great place to get lost in yourself for a little bit.
The Scottish Highlands is where I find my mental reset. when I'm traipsing through the hills and glens, forests and coasts of Scotland nothing really matters for that brief moment other than that brief moment itself, the here and now sort of take up all the head space needed to push everything else to the side for those few short periods and helps me to reset my mental state. a refreshing mental reset is how I've came to think of my time spent in the highlands of Scotland.
Anyway onto the good stuff, I finally managed to get out and about over the weekend just at the beginning of this nice weather we've been having with a wee two day trip up to Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands. This was the first time I'd been out of Ayrshire for almost a year and boy it felt good to get back up to this place that I missed so much.
View of Buachaille Etive Mor from near the Devils Staircase
Obvious hidden waterfall near the Devils Staircase
View of the Three Sisters from Stob Mhic Mhartuin
Arriving in Glen Coe at around 19:00 on the Saturday evening I knew I had at least 3 hours before sunset so set about having a quick snack and cup of coffee before heading up the Devils Staircase (above) via the obvious hidden waterfall (left) to reach the summit of Stob Mhic Mhartuin, looking onto 'The Three Sisters' and the Bidean nam Bian range in the Glen Coe Pass for sunset (right).
Unfortunately the sunset that looked really promising for the whole route up didn't really amount to much in the end. but it was a lovely evening so I took my time walking back down just scouting for some astro landscape compositions.
This location has been a target of mine for astro photography for a while but unfortunately the small waterfall was just a trickle on Saturday so I'll definitely be back to get this one again.
I got back to the car around midnight, set my alarm for 02:00 with the idea of heading up to the viewpoint on the col on Beinn A'Churlaiste for sunrise which I did. but after setting up a bed in the car and sorting everything for the next (same) morning I only managed to get around 40m sleep before getting up and heading up to climb to the viewpoint.
As is almost always the case with Beinn A'Churlaiste I met another photographer on the climb up for sunrise, a really nice guy I got chatting to from Airdrie. it had been that long since the last time I was up there I couldn't remember the time it took to walk up to the viewpoint from the car but knew it wasn't far off the hour mark so we both headed up around 03:00 which gave us about an hour and 40 minutes before the sun was due to rise, we got there just after 04:00.
Anyway! back to the photos. I reached the viewpoint on the col and set up with a good 40 minutes or so before the sun was due to rise. which gave me a cracking view of Rannoch Moor, Glen Etive, The Buachialle Etive Mor and Glen Coe in the Blue Hour, the hour just before sunrise or just after sunset. the time in the morning when the first reflected light from the sun is bouncing off of the earths atmosphere giving a lovely blue or purple colour cast to the landscape. (you may notice the band of pinky-purple across the horizon!? This is commonly known as the 'Belt of Venus', (the anti-twilight arc) which is the reflected sunrise bouncing off of the atmosphere on the opposite side of the earth to where the sun rises/sets)
Blue Hour over the Buachaille Etive Mor from Beinn A'Churlaiste
The sunrise was pretty much like the sunset from the night before, it was really promising looking at the start of the morning but not the spectacular show of colour that I hoped it might be, but again like the night before it was still lovely just to be in this place and take in the beauty of it. so before heading back down I grabbed a quick shot of the alpine glow of the morning sun spilling over the Bidean nam Bian mountain range at the Glen Coe pass (below).
Alpine Glow over the Bidean nam Bian mountain range in Glen Coe
So after a lovely night and morning climbing two mountains I had a decision to make, stay up in Glen Coe for the rest of the day in the hope of another chance at a sunset later on!? or just head home!? Ha Ha... you know the answer to that already I'm sure! Ha Ha...
I decided to find a wee shaded area where I could park up and go for a couple of hours sleep and hopefully miss the worst of the midday sun, (as any landscape photographer knows, harsh light and bright blue skies are not ideal for landscape photography) and not to mention only having 40m sleep the night before is not a great idea for trying to drive the stretch of road down past Loch Lomond from Ardlui to Tarbet when you've not had much sleep and especially at night when I was planning on heading home.
St John Church with Loch Leven and the Pap of Glencoe in the background, Ballachulish
St John Church grounds, Ballachulish
So I managed to grab a few hours shut eye in the car near this location in Ballachulish just down the road from Glencoe village. Got up nice and fresh and headed over to St John Church to grab a few photos of the church and it's surrounding bloom of Bluebells with the Pap of Glencoe towering over the shores of Loch Leven in the background. followed by a short walk up to Glencoe village where I took a wee walk up round some of the trails at Glencoe Lochan, A wee loch just above Glencoe, that has some short but absolutely beautiful trails that take you around the forest or up onto the mountain trail or simply just around the Lochan (Small Loch) itself, although each of the trails centre around the small loch anyway. So definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the area.
Glencoe Lochan with a few wee families of duck milling around and a gorgeous view onto the Pap of Glencoe
After here it was just a short drive back up to the Glen Coe pass to one of my favourite spots to sit and just watch the world go by. it looks onto the three sisters on the Bidean nam Bian mountain range and sits directly across from the famous hidden valley that sits in that range. Sitting here I had the stream babbling away beside me, the trees swishing in the breeze and the clouds passing over the tops of the mountains casting the dappled sunlight moving in unison with the clouds over the landscape . now tell me!... what's not to love about that!?
One of my favourite places in Glencoe to just sit and watch the world go by.
After a wee break here I had a few hours to kill before sunset so took a quick 2 minute drive down to Loch Achtriochtan at the foot of the Glencoe pass (I'll leave a map at the foot of this blog just so you can see where all these places are in relation to each other). this time of day was great to get stopped down there, most of the daytime visitors had already come and gone so the car park was relatively vacant and quiet. it was nice to just sit and watch the evening light pass over the hills. Using the telephoto lens (Tamron 70-200mm in this case) it was nice to just sit and enjoy the evening and try and pick out the odd little vignette in the landscape that catches your eye.
Scattered light over the Aonach Eagach ridge,
Scattered light over a wee copse of trees at Loch Achtriochtan looking up into the Glen Coe pass.
From here I headed back up to the Glen Etive area to try and capture a nice sunset over the Bauchaille Etive Mor.
The River Coupall running past the Buachaille Etive Mor at sunset
But like sunrise that morning and sunset the night before it was a rather subdued affair, but also again, it was such a lovely night that I just hung about for night to arrive before heading back home. the reason for this is that in 2019 I had started a wee project that I was trying out just to see if it was a practical or even worthwhile task. the idea was to try and capture the same location from the exact same spot, using the tripod at the exact same height, same focal length lens and same camera body (Nikon D750 + Irix 15mm) for each month of the year to show how, even though the scenery changes from month to month the landscape stays exactly the same and will continue to do so for millennia to come. but unfortunately finances stopped me from getting a couple of these months in so I missed out getting the full set of 12 months in 2019, I contemplated starting again in 2020 from January but a couple of months into that covid raised it's head and that was that idea out the window for 2020. And this year it has taken right up to June just to get back up here again so I've decided to continue this project just as an ongoing thing and try and capture the location every time I'm up here and for all it falls outwith my original idea of setting the project over a full individual year, I'll just try and capture each month as and when I get it, even if it takes 2, 5 or even 10 years to do it I'll get there. lol.
'Buachaille Nightfall' - Glen Etive Waterfall
It doesn't really get fully dark up this far north in Scotland just now so I'll try this shot again later in the year and hopefully I should be able to get the Milky Way over the Buachaille to add to the collection. Here is some of the original shots I'd managed to get in 2019 including the one from this month
Glen Etive Waterfall in different months of the year
Anyway! that was my long awaited (“Mental Reset”) trip into the highlands of Scotland and I have to say it helped so much with my mental well being after a huge part of the last year being confined to the house/garden. The photos are by no means ground-breaking images but like most photo trips I gauge its success based on how much I enjoyed it as much as how well the photos came out. so Yes! this was a great success for me as I had an absolutely amazing two days in an amazing part of the world and got to take some photos too which is always a huge bonus.
So the best piece of advice I can give anyone heading out into the hills with the camera is... just enjoy it! take in the scenery and let the time out and about just be about the time out and about. If you manage to get some nice shots that remind you of this time spent here then that's a good day! and we all need more of them in our lives.
A map of the area with place markers for each of the places mentioned in the blog.
Best Regards.
Sylvan
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