Who does NOT like the Highlands of Scotland? If it is you, well I doubt your taste in travel. While we did not spend days on end in The Highlands, we did enjoy the beauty of the area very much. The area has inspired poets to verse and the clans to warfare, it is both gentle and rugged and oh so green.\

We finished our drive from Blair Castle in the Town of Aviemore, with the plan to ride a steam train excursion on the Strathspey Railway. I had originally planned to ride The Jacobite the train featured in the Harry Potter movies as the Hogwarts Express. I was willing to do something THAT touristy just because it is really cool. Sadly, at the time I was booking things in early spring of 2024 the train was shut down due to  railway safety regulations and not taking reservations. Being a bit of a steamhead, I still wanted to do something similar with a steam train and found this cute little railroad. While the trip itself was much shorter, it was less expensive and still pretty cool. I love photographing trains, if you look back there are several posts on my blog about the "Big Boy" 4014 operated by Union Pacific and my adoration of trains and especially steam trains should be mildly obvious. The excursion was short but lovely, we did not pay for the extras of the morning tea service but enjoyed looking out the windows at the peaceful scenes of the valley.

Our turn around point was at Glenbogle, glen is a wooded opening in the trees, and Bogle as a name tickled my brain. I do love the origins of place names and or just the oddness sometimes. Scotland has a plentiful number of interesting place names. Do have to admit the Gaelic names on road signs in the Highlands and Islands were charming in the extreme.  

 Most of the time you don't get very close to the operators and engineers of steam trains, but with an operation this small, it is doable. This was one of my favorite photos of the day, the movement of the man shoveling the coal, the complexity of the pipes, the overall texture of the image just capture my mood.  

Leaving town we went back to the south to come up Loch Ness from the Spean Bridge end and drive north ending our day in Drumnadrochit, our plan to get some food, then visit Urquhart Castle in the evening. I truly love the location and history of this castle, I can imagine the location as an obvious place for a stronghold for as long as people have needed protection from others. It has been ruined for ages, but must have been amazing at the height of its use. In some ways I prefer ruins over castles that are still habitable, as I can use my well trained imagination to rebuild it. Sometimes fantasy is better than reality. 

The next morning we left for points north fairly early as we wanted to see Inverness for a bit, for some reason I never really liked the town. I just can't put my finger on it, the riverwalk is lovely it is not to big. Shrugs, it just never jelled with me. Lovely bride and I enjoyed the visit then headed north as we had an appointment with one of my top 5 castles, Dunrobin Castle. As an aside, I do want to point out that I had a more keen awareness in my 50's of the social and economic circumstances that allowed the lords and landowners to amass the money that they did, and the often cruel manner in which their tennants were treated. The Highland Clearances being just part of that. I am, however, able to still appreciate the beauty of the castles, homes and estates that they produced while acknowledging the hardships that produced them. Moving on, after the tour of the castle we observed the hawking/falconry show that is part of the tour if you time it correctly. Pulling out my longest lens my 70-210, I was able to get close enough to get a few cool photos.    

The castle views from the gardens that sit between the building and the North Sea is the payoff of the visit really. It is so fairytale looking that I cannot help but be enthralled.    

I have a confession to make, I have never been super comfortable taking pictures with people in them, I always seem to prefer waiting until the people around are not there to... Distract? Shrugs, it is just my thing don't know why but I find myself reluctant to have people there when I am focusing on the form, pattern, or simplicity maybe, of the object I am photographing. But in this instance I HAD to take and keep the photo, there is just something joyful about the little girl who was running around and when she jumped up on the edge of the pond was so excited to see herself... Well that was too precious for me to miss. At some point I will work around my people avoidance in some of these situations and work to include them, unpack and face myself and my insecurities. But... not right now.   

We stayed in Golspie after visiting Dunrobin, had a lovely dinner then headed north to catch the ferry to The Orkney Islands. I somehow didn't take a picture of the ferry on my DSLR, but did thoroughly enjoy the passage to St. Margaret's Hope. We did a lot of driving, got dinner and spent part of the evening back out exploring including the Standing Stones of Brodgar, which my next post will be about as it deserves a singular post. The next day we visited Kirkwall for my lovely lady to do laundry (yes, mundane things happen on vacation) and for me to explore St. Magnus Cathedral. I vaguely remember walking past it on my only prior visit to Kirkwall, but with the limited time available I don't know that I even took a single photo of it. Determined to rectify that oversight I was very pleasantly blessed with a quiet morning to explore. The climate and choice of stone seem to have been somewhat poorly matched, but I dearly love the texture of the weathering, DEARLY LOVE! For a building in the far north of the country the ornateness and dedication to detail is astounding. The hinges, oh me, the decorative nature of the hinges, I just could not quite grasp it. I must admit one of my frustrations with these types of buildings, nothing has remained perfectly straight, level or symmetrical. I have a deep seated need to have my photos of architectural things be level, though I do not always fully correct the perspective as that can look quite weird. But many if not most of these buildings have settled, and shifted over the years, or were just not built straight in the first place, I had to learn to live with that. Try to not look too closely or judge me on these little details. They were hard to work with.

While not as ornate as some, the geometric patterns and overall simplicity of the ceiling was pleasurable to view. Again, my 12mm Fisheye lens came to the rescue, I find this just so pleasing and dramatic and simply could not have gotten this view any other way. Someday they will put a fisheye ultrawide angle lens on a cell phone, but until then I will stick with my DSLR, even after then too I think.

This is the type of weathering I see in southern Utah sandstone, and I believe this is a similar type of rock. Seeing it on a building, even one close to nine hundred years old astounds me in that it can weather that fast!  

All in all, a beautiful way to spend a morning.   

The Brough of Birsay is this cool little tidal island that was reachable by foot though we chose to not chance the tide, it has remnants of Norse, Pictish and other cultures. Kinda wish I HAD chanced that crossing...   

Thanks for reading and viewing, as always leave comments as desired.