Visit Scottish Highlands #1 - Eilean Donan Castle

Hello My Friends and visitors!

Today I decided to start new series on my blog - similar to 'Visit Norway' - photo guide to Scottish Highlands where I will present some nice places which I visited during last few years.

For the first entry - Eilean Donan Castle on Loch Duich near the town called Dornie.

Easy to access from the main road, on the way from Inverness to Isle of Skye, well seen from a far. The place is well known and I it is one of the most popular Scottish Castles in Highlands. Next to the castle we can find big parking places, visitors centre with restaurant, gift shop, toilets - standard...

Like before, I don't want to present historical facts or numbers... all of this can be easily reached in Wikipedia for example, I will focus on photographic aspect of the place and my own opinions and thoughts...

I have visited the place 3 or 4 times already but never had luck to have good lighting conditions or interesting weather to shoot... I can only dream about some fog, maybe rainbow, sunset light on the walls of the castle or at least some more interesting sky...

There are three good photo spots which are worth visiting - first one is just by the castle and car park. We have good access to the bridge, interesting rocks by the shoreline and great visibility on the castle and whole island. The castle is open for visitors of course, You can walk freely outside the castle, but during the high season it is accesible only with tickets. With the ticket we can also take some guided tours to see the whole castle inside - but as a landscape photographer...I never been inside ;)...

Second good spot is just on the other side of the loch, after crossing the bridge in direction to Isle of Skye we can park on the left side, where also we can find some Cafe, toilets and carpark. From this side the castle is well situated together with the mountains behind and the water in front. Wish to see the reflections on still water... On this side we can meet quite often crab fishing boat (I am not sure how it is called properly) which is always nice element of the photo.

Third nice photo spot in the area is situated above Dornie town. We have to drive up quite steep road to reach the small carpark but it is definitely worth it! The overall view on the Loch, surrounded mountains and a castle below...

Last time I was there, March this year, we guided, together with my brother photographer, a photographic workshops for a group of 12 students from USA. I didn't have much time to shoot but I used the lunch break to catch some shots instead of eating. Results need some sacrifices ;). I used my ND1000 filter to try some long exposure shots.

I also catched this view and tried some stronger post-processing to create sepia-like effect of old photograph. Always have some "photovisions" about normal stuff ;)...

My opinion and final thought - place is worth visiting, but it is worth visiting when we travel to Isle of Skye - good photo spot for 1-2 hours maximum, The castle is well preserved, it is very well situated and with good lighting conditions, we can make really amazing shots. I have seen many great shots of the castle in net. I was visiting this place during autumn and spring time avoiding summer season, so there was not so many people, but as I spoked with my brother, during summer holidays it is crazy crowded - many big busses block the carparks, people walking everywhere, extreme hard to find some quiet place just to enjoy the view and contemplate the castle... Outside the season , especially early morning time - it is almost deserted.

This is the place where we can feel the real spirit of Highlands!

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Thanks for reading and watching, stay tuned if You like to see more Highlands beauties!

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