On Misty Mountains

my travel photography in and outside of Scotland

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Sma’ Glen, Perthshire, Scotland

Visiting Sma’ Glen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG4gaSkz9qA

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Dun Mor Pictish Hillfort, Sma’ Glen

Hillfort Tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG4gaSkz9qA

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Ben Chonzie, Cairngorms, Scottish Highlands

Ben Chonzie Vlog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf8KgcTDosA

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Florence Court, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Vlog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBP6ozh2t2M

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Dunblane Cathedral, Scotland

Dunblane Vlog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-uV0Us0-Kc

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An Dun Hillfort, Pitlochry, Scotland

This hillfort ('an dun' just means 'the fort') is surrounded by trees nowadays and might well be near impossible to spot from the road, but back when it was used it must have had a majestic view across to the Cairngorms. Today you can also see the bright Blue of Loch Faskally and the River Tummel, as well as the town of Pitlochry stretching across the hills. You get a great view of the Pass of Killiecrankie, a natural separation line between this area and the depth of the Scottish Highlands beyond. No wonder this is considered the Northernmost hillfort in Perthshire. This hillfort is not well known these days, so we really enjoyed exploring it in depth. On the way back we went up further into the hills and were rewarded with an amazing view of the Cairngorms sprawled across the horizon. Beinn a'Ghlo was especially prominent and reminded me of the time we tried to go up, but found ourselves in a cloud that wasn't budging. The River Tummel provided an accent of intense blue. Up on the hills, we could only see it with the drone, but as we descended back towards Pitlochry on the circular walk, the view towards the river opened up, which you can see in the last photo.

My visit to An Dun features in my March Vlog.

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Dundurn Hillfort and St Fillans Chapel

I love coming back to this hillfort because the scenery here is just so breath-taking with the mountains rising up on all sides. The dusting of snow on the tops made it even more scenic. Feral goats roam this area (likely descendants of those abandoned during the Highland Clearances) and funnily enough, there was one at the top keeping an eye on us while indulging in some of the spring greens. There is a graveyard nearby with a ruined chapel dedicated to Saint Fillans. While I was surveying Dundurn with a drone, one of the Red Kites (I'm sure I saw at least two) came to have a closer inspection of this very strange and noisy new bird in the sky. Quite a few birds have checked out the drone so far, but luckily none of them ever tried to attack it. I'm sure they can tell that it's not a bird. It must be such a strange sight to them. 

Head over to my February Vlog to see a visit and drone footage of this fort.

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Kilmartin Glen, Argyll

This area has some of, if not, the highest density of Neolithic monuments and sites in all of Scotland. These 3 sites were all concentrated in and around the same field, but there are many more to the South and North. 

The first site we visited are the Nether Largie Standing Stones. The form a line and some suggest that they are aligned with the path of the moon across the sky and may track the lunar cycle. Alternatively, the may be aligned with the sun. Either way, both sun and moon would have been important to Neolithic farmers to grow as many crops as possible. The largest of the Standing Stones also has 23 ‘cupmarks’, semi-circular indentations, which are quite commonly found around Scotland, but are typically associated with Pictish art on the East Coast. Perhaps this reflects who lived here before the Scots tribes came over from Ireland in the Iron Age and settled the West Coast of Scotland, eventually conquering all of it.

A few minutes walk and you arrive at Temple Wood Stone Circle, which is Neolithic, likely from 3000 BC, but people kept using the site and built chambered tombs here well into the Bronze Age, or around 1000 BC. There are two burial cairns, both collapsed, but the smaller one had some burial offerings in it (see the photo below). A clay pot, bone arrowheads and a scraper for funeral rites. Those items can be seen in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum (also check out this video, where I visit Kelvingrove).

The last site we visited was a chambered burial cairn known as Nether Largie South Cairn. This one is well preserved and you can look inside (or climb if you aren’t afraid of disturbing the spirits ;)). It was especially interesting to see this from the air. There is also a small, box-sized shallow pit right next to the large cairn. This is probably the oldest monument in the glen, about 5000 years old, but it also would have been used for longer than that as a sacred site.

You can find my Youtube Vlog here of me visiting these sites.

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Dunadd Hillfort, Argyll

This hillfort is pretty impressive as it is, but it also has a special slab with a footprint. This slab is one of the reasons why people visit Dunadd Hillfort. It is associated with the Kings of the Scots tribe Dal Riata and their inauguration ceremony, which according to legend involved the new King stepping into the 'footstep' of his predecessors. What you see nowadays is a cast though, so you don't have to be worried about wearing down something of historical importance. It's still a fun thing to step into that foot shape. I did it and it was precisely the size of my boot. As with the previous day of our holiday, there was a firm grasp of fog and low cloud and particularly early in the morning when we were there, the landscape around the fort was simply non-existent. We still got a pretty good idea. There is an upper level with a citadel at the top and the King's stone slightly below. And there is a lower level with remains of buildings, a wall and a well. There's a natural (or not) break in the rock, which leads in and out of the lower level. A perfect bottleneck for defending the fort. There's parking right next to the fort and it's only 5 to 10 min to get up there. So visiting Dunadd is a no-brainer when in Argyll. 

Head over to Youtube for a video of me visiting this fort and other places in Argyll.

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Dun Skeig Hillfort and Coast of Argyll

This hillfort has a great location to watch over the sea and you can see as far as Jura on a good day (while we were there there was a persistent low cloud). Certainly, the Isle of Gigha is looming on the horizon in my photos. Before roads were built along the coast and into the Highlands, it was much faster and easier to travel around by boat (and probably still is), and many settlers came over from Ireland. Those people were known as the ‘Scots’ and they ended up giving their name to Scotland eventually. Their presence can be felt all over Argyll. This hillfort, though, is particularly interesting, not just because it’s well preserved, but because it's somewhat unusual in that there is two of them. There is an older fort, which is ‘vitrified’, meaning the stone has molten,  potentially from a fire that may have destroyed the fort. The only remains of the old fort are grass-covered walls. A new fort was built on the other side of the hill peak, re-using some of the vitrified stone. Much of the wall is still standing and especially once you get up into the air, you can truly appreciate this structure.

My Argyll Holiday Vlog is up on my channel.

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A Magic Winter Day around Dunkeld, Scotland

The area around Dunkeld is not particularly mountainous, yet it is one of the most beautiful parts of Perthshire. It is the doorstep to the Highlands and you can actually get a good glimpse of them in the distance from certain viewpoints. Recently, there has been a lot of fog and low cloud. So whenever the sun is out, it becomes a near-spiritual experience, everything being bathed in golden light of the low Winter sun, including myself. It’s a little bit like light therapy. It’s filling up a cup somewhere inside. The cherry on top were a couple trees, which were bustling with siskins. Those little yellow birds were eating berries and chatting away to one another. I must have stood there for at least 30 minutes, just watching them and trying to capture the scene. 

My December Vlog is up on Youtube.

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Fife Coastal Path from Elie to Elie Chain Walk

When I spotted something that looked like a cave in the distance, I had to go and explore. Turns out it was part of the Elie Chain Walk, a challenging path along coastal cliffs. I didn’t have enough daylight to do the entire chain walk, but even just returning from the cave via the chain was pretty challenging, as some of the carved steps are badly eroded. I’m still up for trying again on a warm Summers day. This walk features in my November Vlog.

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Falls of Bruar and House of Bruar, Cairngorms National Park

This walk is a classic, especially when you stop by the House of Bruar to get something nice from delicatessen. I bought my mum a scarf for Christmas. A big department store in the middle of the Scottish Highlands is worth seeing at least once in your lifetime, but in my eyes the experience is only completed by taking in the beautiful nature around it and do the full walk around the Falls of Bruar. The snow was just the icing on the cake.

This walk features in my November Vlog.

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Ben Ledi - Hiking in a Cloud

Scottish Weather is notoriously fickle. Just the day before the weather was bright and clear and when we returned the next day, there was already a low cloud enveloping the majority of the mountain tops. But we wanted the full tour and decided not to go the day before and possibly having to descend a precarious mountain path in the dark. The cloud on top never went away, but occasionally the sun would peek through. It’s pretty much like walking through a thick fog, so good navigation is essential. But the atmosphere is amazing and everything looks very mysterious. Whilst at the bottom of the mountain, we could still see the bright Autumn colours, on the top the colours all blended together in the typical Scottish Highlands colour scheme. 

Watch the full hiking vlog on my Youtube channel.

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Autumnal Shades around Ben Ledi, Trossachs

We caught Autumn at its Best while going up Ben Ledi in the Trossachs National Park. This area of Scotland is really growing on me and I want to explore there more often. For now, enjoy all the beautiful Autumn shades and the light and shadow effect created by the low sun. At the end of our walk the light was failing us and it became harder to capture the colours, but I think you still get a good idea. 

Head over to my Youtube channel for a full hiking vlog.

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Dunmore Pictish Hillfort, Callander

This easily-accessible Iron Age-style hillfort is located in the Trossachs, which is quickly becoming one of my favourite parts of Scotland. The big mountain behind the fort is called Ben Ledi and according to a legend, giants held a rock throwing competition on its peak. The giant Samson won the competition by flinging a massive rock, which still lies on Bochastle Hill, the hill right next to the hillfort. It is known as ‘Samson’s Stone’ (photo 8). The hillfort itself has distinctive defensive walls and a little annexe, perhaps for keeping animals safe. You get a great view towards the Lowlands from here. You can see Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument, but you can even see as far as the Pentland Hills next to Edinburgh. When you look towards Callander, you can also spot some old boundaries in a field (photo 9). These are the walls of Bochastle Roman Fort, one of the smaller forts situated at the entrance to important glens. That means the Pictish fort and the Roman fort were close by and were in sight of each other, perhaps indicating a precarious relationship between the locals and an incoming military force, a delicate balance between war and peace. 

You can find a full tour of Dunmore Hillfort and Bochastle Roman Fort on my Youtube channel.

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Ardoch Roman Fort, Kaims Castle Roman Fortlet and Muir O’ Fauld Watchtower | Gask Ridge, Perthshire

We visited a few places along the Gask Ridge, the Roman frontier that was established during their first campaign in Scotland in the 1st Century AD, led by Agricola. He established temporary marching camps all the way up to Inverness, but the forts on the Gask Ridge were built to last (as you can see Ardoch has lasted until now). They form a line running along the Highlands in safe distance, with some ‘Glenblocker’ forts sitting on the entrance of the glens to give warnings of raids. After the Battle of Mons Grapius in 83 AD, where the Scottish tribes faced the Romans head-on and lost badly, the tribes would pretty much only use guerrilla tactics, hiding in the mountains and forest and raiding Roman camps when they least expected it. The occupation of the Gask Ridge lasted hardly a decade before the Romans abandoned this frontier. Though two more attempts were made in the centuries to come (the Antonine Wall was built during the 2nd attempt) and Ardoch was re-used and re-built both times. That is perhaps why it is so well-preserved and from up in the air you can still see the older, oblong fort underneath the second square-shaped they built on top (1st picture). Fortlets were slightly smaller forts to bridge the distance between the large Forts and Watchtowers filled in the rest of the line, so that there was something every 1-1.5 km and a signal (for example beacons of smoke) could be relayed swiftly between the main camps. In addition, the large forts were always situated near a river. You can tell that the Romans had their strategy down. And yet, they never gained a foothold in Scotland. Head over to Youtube for our visit of the Gask Ridge, which ended up being a mini-documentary, if you want to dive deeper into the history of the Romans in Scotland.