Luss, Loch Lomond

After a nice week away on the Isle Of Wight, it was nice to make the most of my second week off work by paying a visit to Scotland. The main reason for our drive across the Anglo-Scottish border was to visit family in Livingston, not too far from Edinburgh, in a westerly direction. From Livingston we made the 64 miles trip to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, stopping off at Luss. The weather was fine, which is quite a rarity in Scotland, even in Summer. Our visit to Luss was a fairly short one and merely an exercise to get out and stretch our legs around the shores of Loch Lomond, taking in some fine views in the process. There were many tourists, like ourselves, and the coaches came and went every few minutes - Luss was obviously a popular place to tick off the list, judging by the sheer volume of people that were entering this small town. Apart from photographing the landscape around Loch Lomond, mainly from the pier, plus a quick walk around the nearby streets, I saw little else. That wasn't a disappointment though, as what I did see was more than enough and a taster of what else lay ahead. It was from Luss that we made a further journey North, up the West Coast towards Glencoe, adding another 60 miles on the clock. An hour and twenty minutes later, after being stuck in traffic on a very narrow road, we arrived at a very sunny Glencoe. Just what we wanted. Stay tuned for that and more, soon...
Cheers, AC

West Coast Of Scotland - Part 2

Glencoe & Loch Leven

Welcome back to my Blog page - thanks for visiting!
The Scottish tale continues as I recall my recent travels across the border and share with you some of the photographs I captured on location. From Glen Etive and its forest, in Argyll & Bute, I headed the short distance to picturesque Glencoe.

Glencoe Village is the main settlement near Glen Coe, Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. It lies at the north-west end of the glen, on the southern bank of the River Coe where it enters Loch Leven, a salt-water loch off Loch Linnhe. Glencoe is the most famous and perhaps most impressively dramatic of all Scottish glens, the perfect scenic match for its dark history of the massacre of the Macdonalds. For walkers, this is a true Mecca, epitomised by pyramid of Buachaille Etive Mor, the guardian at the entrance to the glen. The highest peak is the great multi-summited massif of Bidean nam Bian whose three great buttresses rise impressively above the road and are known as the 'Three Sisters', whereas the north wall of the glen is the turreted and notorious ridge of the Aonach Eagach. Just to the south is the much quieter and secluded Glen Etive, with its own ranges of impressive mountains (which I visited and wrote about on my last blog entry). North and east of Glencoe is Loch Leven, with the town of Kinlochleven at its eastern end nestled beneath the great mountain range of the Mamores. My visit was a rather short one, to be honest, as heavy rain was forecast, and judging by the deep grey skies above, it was going to hoy down at given moment! I'd heard so much about this place that it dawned on me that I wouldn't see it anywhere near its best, due to the lack of light, which threw a blanket of dullness over the whole landscape that sat in front of me. Nevertheless, this place had real potential for those stunning landscape shots, so let there be no doubt whatsoever that I'll be back again soon, hopefully in totally different conditions. Despite the fact it was early evening there was no-one around as I stood at the waters edge taking photographs. Just the noise from passing vehicles on the road behind me was all I could hear - this place was ideal to chill out. Water was calm, just a handful of boats were anchored on the loch near the jetty where I stood. I wasn't snap happy - just grabbed four shots before heading off to another location. Light began to fall, so it was time to head to my hotel in Oban and to start thinking about food (no surprise there then). Haggis and Chips was on the menu, inside my head - it was now time to do something about it. All this mileage and regular pit-stops equate to one rumble tum. Time to silence it.

That is all.
Next Stop, Castle Stalker...

Ta ta, Ash

Just A Quick One

It's a quick one, alright...

Hello again! A quick blog to let everyone know that I'll be uploading my latest batch of photographs to my website over the next couple of days. There will be the usual blog entries to accompany the new gallery at ashleycorr.com - all photographs were taken during last weekends tour of  Scotland's West Coast. A memorable trip, taking in such places as The Trossachs, Glencoe, Oban, Fort William and finally the most northern point of my travels, Dornie, the location of Eilean Donan Castle - a place I have wanted to visit for many a year. Stay tuned for the new photographs.

Finally, the hit counter at ashleycorr.com has almost passed the 70,000 mark!!! Many thanks to all who have bumped up those figures down the years. It seems like yesterday that I was commemorating my 40,000th hit. Time flies. Hat tipped once again.

Back soon.

Ash