Evening was interrupted yesterday by a glimpse of sunlight on surrounding neighbours’ houses, resulting in a rapid trot with coat, feet, dog and camera to the end of the street for a view of a gloriously colourful sunset over Strathearn.
Monthly Archives: May 2017
Around Here
Just a few photos of the landscape of Strathearn to the north of Auchterarder – testing a new ultra-wide lens during the evening’s dog-walk.
Birnam Hill: Hunting the Highland Boundary Fault
I’ve been to Birnam Hill and Duncan’s Hill area at least six times, so it made a good testing ground for the new Pentax K-1 camera.
It wasn’t the best of days for landscape photography – a bit early in the day for what little light there was to be really photogenic – but there was a moment when the sun broke through and illuminated some birch trees on top of Duncan’s Hill most beautifully:
For some years I’ve known the Highland Boundary Fault crosses the A9 around Dunkeld/Birnam area, but never really pinpointed the exact location.
On my first visit I walked around Duncan’s Hill through Birnam Wood and Rochanroy Wood: I observed a particular lump of rock exhibiting clear strata sticking out of the hillside:
As I passed the edge of the established woodland, there was a pronounced drop of about a metre to the level of the new conifer trees to the right. And I wondered if this was a particular noted geological formation.
On more recent visits I geotagged the location and compared with the British Geological Survey’s maps to see the rock types change either side of the dip – till, changing to slate and grit and then to psammite and semipelite typical of the Highlands.
On further investigation with Google Earth, the photo on the corner of the dip is right on the line of the Highland Boundary Fault itself, running up from Rohallion Loch through the lodge, round north-east turning easterly across the A9 south of Birnam.
Got it! Clear confirmation. Right on the money, first time 🙂
The path continues across a pronounced dip in the landscape before continuing up the other side to Stair Bridge Viewpoint and the King’s Seat on Birnam Hill.
Of course my favourite clear pure waterfall was still running:
The path affords some excellent views back of the Highland Boundary Fault cutting across the landscape:
And finally, as far up the hills as I wanted to go that day, at Stair Bridge Viewpoint I was rewarded with a clear landscape vista over Rohallion Lodge to the Lowlands to the south:
In the Trossachs
The Bracklinn Falls are an impressive waterfall, located in the Highland Boundary Fault zone just outside Callendar in the Trossachs. The prevailing rock is diamiction till, so not quite the psammit or semi-pelite characteristic of the Highlands, but close enough. The Keltie Water is responsible for eroding the rock into some chunky shapes.
Starting at the Falls, there is a loop walk of a few miles up the far side of the river, through artificial monoculture forest, and back along the road down to the carpark. On the way are two notable features: Eas na Callich[sic] gorge, a smaller waterfall upstream of Bracklinn
…and a wonderful view of distant mountains, mostly Meall Odhar, covered in snow:
To round off the day, I went for a further drive through the Trossachs, along the A821 (Duke’s Pass); on a corner of Loch Achray there was a lovely view of Ben Venue in the light across the water.
Not bad, as first real outing with new cameras go… 🙂