Scotland Day 7 - An early start and a surprising sky

Tweet Follow @photograferry

Woke up at 5.30 with some anticipation, as for most of the week the forecast had predicted good weather for sunrise, the only day of the week it had. I struggled out of my sleeping bag with no little difficulty, as my ribs were still playing merry hell with me since the fall on day two, and grappled my way to the window, where ominous, glowering clouds were assembled yet again.

I was not best pleased, but I figured I would get up anyway and face the day, as it was my last in Scotland. At least it wasn’t raining I thought, or more likely said, quite loudly, as by now I was regularly chatting away to myself, without the least concern.

I quickly attired, jumped in the car and headed to Buachaille Etive Mor, which is the classic sunrise shot, but the inclement weather was having none of this sort of behavior and the mountain looked flat and lifeless.

So instead of hanging around, I scooted over to Black Rock cottage, a classic view from this area, and somewhere I’d not been to yet, to see if anything interesting would happen. And much to my surprise it did.

As I stood there looking at the view, in yet another all encompassing wind of almost hurricaniffic proportions, and rueing my ‘at least it wasn’t raining’ comment from earlier, as the rain splashed down. I noticed a bit of colour appearing in the sky above the cottage. 

You can see the trees blowing about in the high winds.

I quickly got my gear assembled and took few shots, stopping every so often to wipe the lens free of water. The light by now had a real other worldly quality to it, thanks to the sun, behind me, appearing through a gossamer brume lying across the horizon. The diffused light was being carried through the clouds above it and rendering the sky in front of me a curious mixture of subtle hues.

The sky was both warm and cool at the same time.

I then turned and took a few images towards the sun, trying to capture the colours that were playing about the nebulous sky, until it rose and was claimed by clouds yet again. Feeling pleased that I had seen this little display I then drove into Etive Mor once again.

Here's a few images from the morning sky because I like them.

I parked up a little way into the glen, and as I sat there in the peaceful early morning light, the only sound to be heard for miles around was me chomping on a cereal bar and, well, that was it probably, just me chomping. I could have sat there in the silence (once I’d finished troughing) for quite a while, but I noticed the sky was getting brighter and there were definite suggestions of sun in the offing. So I turned the car around and headed back to the main road.

When I got back to the mouth of the glen, I could see patches of sunlight catching the grandiose flanks of Buachaille Etive Mor, so I parked up and made ready. The sun never did come out in any great force, but there were glimpses of it, and it did highlight a far section of the mountain, causing a rainbow to form, which was nice.

I thought this was a nice scene to end the trip to Scotland with.

I made my way carefully back to the car, ever mindful of the marshy ground beneath me and proceeded back to the campsite. Once breakfast was over with all I had left to do was pack up the tent and load the car for my journey back home. So that is exactly what I did.

But I will definitely be back to this wonderful place.

I have created a map, so if you're interested in the places I visited you can have a look. 


I have placed the markers as near as I can to where I took the photos. Click on this link to see the map in Google Maps for easier navigation.

BACK TO DAY 6