To the Bonnie Banks

[Don Kellogg]

I will be taking an organized tour of the English Lake District and Scottish Highlands in mid September. After the organized tour we will have 7-9 days of independent travel in Scotland starting October 1. We plan to rent a car and visit the Isle of Skye and various other venues. We were oriiginally scheduled to go in mid August but opted for the later date because of crowds and the Highlands Midges. I'm needing tips about various photo locations. I will be taking medium format equipment for this trip.

[Michael Graves]

That sounds like an amazing trip. I envy you. The thing that caught my eye your query was the name...Bonnie Banks. I dated a Bonnie Banks in high school and when I saw thread, it made me do a triple take. Talk about things coming crashing back!!

[Steve Kefford]

I am not sure what locations you are after, but for Skye, Elgol and The Old Man of Stor are the iconic images. But there are many many more. I am off there soon, and after a considerable amount of research I have found out that I don't think there is a single location that would not produce a great image :-).

As for the Lakes, and the rest of the Highlands, there are again thousands. far too many to list here.

Steve.

[David Henderson]

Great time of year in my view- good colours and enough time between sunset and sunrise to get some sleep. Here's a couple of thoughts, on the basis that you'll have seen a bit of Glencoe and Glen Etive on the way to Skye. BTW Loch Ness is dull and leads away from where you really should be going, so if you can resist that temptation so much the better.

The obvious. Is to drive right up the west coast on little roads after you leave Skye. Just stick as close to the coast as you can. Plockton . Applecross, Ullapool and so on- and if you get right up to Durness and Tongue so much the better. You'll find that the scenery here loses nothing by comparison with Skye and the beaches are magnificent. There's a pretty fast route back from Inverness.

The adventurous. Is to take a ferry from Uig in Skye to Tarbert on Harris (Outer Hebrides) and sspend your days wandering the coast and by-roads of Harris and Lewis , including the stones at Callanish and some glorious beaches and rugged countryside- avoiding Stornoway which would gain you nothing. There are few hotels and it is much better to reserve in advance.

Don't try and do a little of both!

[Carl Radford]

The Isle of Arran is good for a day or two and has much of what Scotland has to offer in a small package! West Coast is stunning but the East Coast fishing villages have lots to offer too!

[David Rees]

Don,

You have some good suggestions already; the Scottish west coast is stunning in the right weather, and October was good last year. Glen Affric can be good at that time, too.

If you think you will get up to the far north west (Cape Wrath, Durness, Kinlochbervie, etc.) let me know -- I live up here, and would be happy to help you explore this area.

BTW, check out Haweswater Reservoir in the Lake District, if you can -- it is my favourite spot in the Lakes. A little off the beaten track (north-east Lakes, about 1/2 hour from Shap / Junction 39 of M6 motorway).

[gari beet]

I am on the Isle of Mull so may be biased, but there is some great scenery here, especially coastlines.
Worth a visit for a day or two. You can fit it in with a trip to the Ardnamurchan Peninsular, and would work as a larger, circular route around Plockton etc,Skye, Ardnamurchan and Mull then back south to your start point.

Gari

[Pete Watkins]

Take an umbrella and waterproof your bellows. You can't get lakes without rain!
Pete.

[adrian tyler]

what gari says...

[Ash]

I can't seem to locate my copy, but go to your local bookshop and find a (huge) hardback book named "The Modern Antiquarian". It's written by Julian Cope and maps out almost every megalithic site in the UK. There is another one for abroad I think.

check out the nasty-looking site here http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/home/ it may have some links to the areas you're visiting.

Personally I think all that stuff is great, but if you aren't interested in big stone things, then don't bother :)


EDIT: the site looks quite quirky actually... how a photographer managed to get a broken horizon I'll never know
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/img_fullsize/55967.jpg

[Bobf]

Well Ash, living in Wiltshire, you are in the right place for an interest in ancient sites!

The Modern Antiquarian has now created overlays for Google Earth 4 which seems to work well: http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/googleEarth/ and the old Flash map is still available at: http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/mapbrowser (but it's no faster than it used to be ;) ).

I suggest people use the Google Maps version for speed, but the web site itself is better for finding out which are the most interesting (generally, the more posts & images, the more interesting the site...) as there is no ranking on the Google Maps version and the single images there often do not give any clue as to the size or importance of the site. Long Meg & Daughters for example, one of the most complete circles in the North of England is depicted only by a close-up of marks on one stone: not really a useful overview. Likewise for Castlerigg, another near complete circle in a spectacular setting, the stones are not even shown... Go to the site and there are dozens of images and posts of each.

Cheers, Bob.

[Ash]

Hey Bob,

Yep I'm in a prime location :)

I used to catch a bus to school from Swindon to Devises every day for 6 years. I close my eyes and I can see Avebury and Silbury hill in great detail.