Last weekend it was ludicrously hot around home – 25ºC after lunchtime – so we drove all the way up north to the Black Isle for a stroll around Fortrose and neighbouring areas. We started with a stroll down to Chanonry Point where the lighthouse looked good in black & white.
Tag Archives: building
Loch Rannoch Sunset
A few photos from Sunday afternoon’s explorations around Loch Rannoch.
We walked through the Black Woods; whilst flying the drone near Camghouran I discovered remains of a building – a pile of stones and hints of mounds in the earth possibly in the shape of a former but’n’ben croft? – in a clearing in the forest.
Walking along the path through the woods, one comes across this clearing just off to the south; quite photogenic from ground level, it becomes even more interesting from 100m up in the air as the beautiful pale tree is apparently stuck on the end of a pile of stome rubble, the remains of some kind of building. 
The impressively tall fir trees of Camghouran / Croiscraig from above the Black Woods of Rannoch 
Sunset on the shore was beautiful; contrasting deep blue ominous dark blue clouds and vibrant orange sunset across the water.
Beautiful glowing colours: warm yellow, orange and red sunset light contrasting with the thick passing clouds near Camghouran, Loch Rannoch 
Beautiful glowing sunset gold and blue colours, near Camghouran, Loch Rannoch 
Beautiful glowing sunset gold and blue colours, near Camghouran, Loch Rannoch 
Beautiful glowing colours: warm yellow, orange and red sunset light contrasting with the thick passing clouds near Camghouran, Loch Rannoch 
Beautiful glowing sunset gold and blue colours, near Camghouran, Loch Rannoch
Prints of some of these photos will be available through my ShinyPhoto website: photos around Loch Rannoch.
Around Bangour
Situated outside Livingston, the psychiatric hospital at Bangour Village was founded in 1906 as Edinburgh District Asylum – one of the first in Scotland to be modelled on a village. In 1918 it housed up to 3000 patients. During the second World War, patients were transferred temporarily to Hartwoodhill Hospital. Around 1924-1930 it gained a multi-denominational church in the centre of the village.
These days the site consists of several listed buildings, most in increasing states of decay – ideal territory for urban exploration.
A few views from ground level:
And a handful of photos made with the drone:
Also see an aerial 360º drone panorama of Bangour I made using Hangar360.
The final ward closed in 2004 – worryingly one of those “in my lifetime” things…
Lady Mary’s Walk, Crieff
Only catching up on photos taken at the end of April…
Lady Mary’s Walk runs West from Crieff along the side of the River Earn, mostly on the flat until one reaches the foot of Laggan Hill after a mile or so, where it forms a circular route back to MacRosty Park.
At the end of April I went for a stroll to hunt bluebells.
The path was particularly pleasant – quiet, leading on through the woods.
As an aside, I’m sure there never used to be such a profusion of wild garlic on these Perthshire woodland nature trails 10 years ago – I only first encountered the stuff whilst out in Galloway.
I was a bit early for optimum bluebell season, but did find a few areas of good blue ground coverage:
And at the western extremity of the route there is a ruined house – it could be quite eerie given the right lighting.
Around Kilchurn Castle
It seems a while ago now, but last September I spent a weekend trundling around Argyll. The light on the Saturday morning was absolutely beautiful – so I spent a happy couple of hours standing on the shores of Loch Awe admiring the sunlight and mist on Ben Cruachan and Kilchurn Castle, as one does.
Around Cairnryan Point Lighthouse
I walked maybe half a mile along the pebbled shores of Loch Ryan, attempting to make interesting photos in classical landscape style. Of this kind of scene, one particular favourite survived the editing purge:
However, the photo I favour most from this afternoon was a serendipitous find, a result of some gentle urban exploration. Just standing in the doorway of this ruined building, all the light through the windows and lines and curves somehow fell together into a classic composition, a celebration of abandonment in grunge:
It also looks radically different in colour:
Curtains
Horizontal market business fail.
Dead shop specialising in vertical blinds, Stranraer.
Portpatrick Lighthouse
Portpatrick Lighthouse
It’s amazing what you can do to improve mobile-phone image-quality in Hugin, Darktable and the GIMP.
Moved On
At a guess, I’m assuming the dental practice that was here has moved on.
Perhaps the NHS should update their webpage, although the banner image serves to illustrate the former glory of the building.
Portpatrick Parish Church
For the record, since they don’t have a website of their own and are pretty hard to find on the official Church of Scotland site: services are at 12 midday on Sundays.
Update 2013-07-02: I noticed, in passing, that from this month onwards apparently service times have changed to 10am on Sundays.