CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Just off the B9007 between Forres and Carrbridge in the Highlands of Scotland is the little known ruin of Lochindorb Castle.    Lochindorb means 'Loch of Trouble' and the 13th century castle was built by the Clan Cromyn on a man made island in the centre of the loch. On a recent visit to Forres I decided to stop off at Lochindorb to scout out the location for a future visit.  The wind had dropped completely and the loch was like a mirror, with the dark peaty water water perfectly reflecting the broken clouds above. I launched the DJI Mavic Pro to get some aerial footage around the castle as the only other way to approach the ruin is by boat.  The scene below the drone's camera was very etherial and I carried out a 15 minute flight to capture several angles and a few still images before landing the drone on the shore.  Being low down, and with only one angle from where I was flying the drone, I decided not to shoot still images with the Fujifilm X Serie...

Today we took a  ride out to Abbey St Bathans with the intention of walking out to see the Edin's Hall Broch, a 2000 year old round house that was very rare in the south of Scotland. The walking route took us along part of the Southern Upland Way and followed the Whiteadder Water and the circular route was about 7 miles in length following the well marked Abbey St Bathans pathway. The Broch is perched high above the river valley and there are great views all around.  The Broch itself is very visible and there is evidence of other buildings in the same area. Not much is known about why this structure, which is more common in west and north Scotland, was built in this location and whether the other building were part of the same settlement or were built in another period. HISTORY OF EDIN'S HALL BROCH Text from Historic Environment Scotland website The broch, or roundhouse, at Edin’s Hall is just one part of a complex site. ...

This afternoon we took a trip out to Hailes Castle to see the display of snowdrops that surround the ruins on the bank of the River Tyne. Snowdrops are a wild woodland flower than comes into bloom at the end of winter.  With the mild weather of late, the carpet of snowdrops at Hailes Castle is earlier this year. Galanthus (snowdrop; Greek gála "milk", ánthos "flower") is a small genus of about 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single small white drooping bell shaped flower with six petal-like (petaloid) tepals in two circles (whorls). The smaller inner petals have green markings.   Snowdrops have been known since the earliest times under various names but were named Galanthus in 1753.  Here are some of the shots I took this morning on the Fujifilm X-T2 with either the XF35mm f1.4, with extension rings fitted to enable closer focusing, or the XF10-24mm f4 wide angl...

Ardvreck Castle - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF10-24mm f4 - 4s @ f22 ISO200 (zoom 10mm) After a good night's sleep in a hotel in Ullapool we headed north at 6:30am to hopefully catch the sunrise over the mountains.  However a fairly steady rainfall meant we were not going to be lucky in that respect.  But as anyone who has traveled in Scotland knows, you just have to make the best of the Scottish weather because it rains a lot here! We decided to head to Loch Assynt to photograph the ruins of Ardvreck Castle which stand on a small outcrop of land surrounded by water. Ardvreck Castle - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF90mm f2 - 1/500 @ f2 ISO400 Ardvreck Castle was built by the MacLeods of Assynt at the end of the 15th Century and stood until 1795 until it was struck by lightning and largely destroyed. The castle now stands as a ruin on the shores of the loch, surrounded by the Scottish mountains on all sides. As the light started to gather the rain eased off, but didn'...

Fujifilm X-T2 + XF10-24mm f4 - 3s @ f9 ISO200 (zoom 10mm) On Friday 27 January we set off from Edinburgh for a two day photo trip into the Highlands around Ullapool.  We left Edinburgh two hours before dawn and as we traveled up the A9, the main road from Perth to Inverness through the mountains, we decided to stop at the ruins of Ruthven Barracks to capture the sunrise. Ruthven Barracks stand on a mound on the opposite side of the A9 from the village of Kingussie, about 13 miles south of Aviemore.  I have been traveling up and down the A9 since I was posted to RAF Kinloss in February 1987 but have never stopped to view the ruins. Fujifilm X-T2 + XF10-24mm f4 - 1/13 @ f11 ISO400 (zoom 12mm) Ruthven Barracks were built in 1719 by the British Army after the failed Jacobite uprising in 1715.   In the 1745 rising led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart a unit of 12 British soldiers, commanded by a Sergeant Terrence Molloy of the 6th Regiment of Foo...