It was one of those crazy late-spring days with a clear divide in the weather – everywhere north of the highland boundary fault was meant to get extreme precipitation, while Fife and Angus remained cool and dry. So we walked for a while in the West Woods of Ethie, admiring the lines and shapes of tall beech trees and subtle light and shade under the canopy.
Tag Archives: woods
In Kinclaven
I was so awed at the sheer acreage of bluebells (harebells?) at Kinclaven woods on my first visit with friends, I went back a couple of days later with the parents as well. Photos happened. It was still awesome. Also cool – a lovely place to just wander through dappled light amongst the trees. Yay.
Lovely atmosphere:
Great light:
Morvern 2/4: Walk in the Woods
A handful of photos from a walk in the woods in Morvern – mostly native birch and oak trees, back-lit by low golden late-afternoon sunlight – absolutely beautiful. Come walk with me.
Argyll Woodlands
One of my favoured walks around Argyll is a couple of miles south of Taynuilt, the White Ant trail around Glen Nant.
Ben Cruachan dominates the surrounding landscape – especially on a cool winter’s day:
Last summer I was pleased to fulfil a client’s requests for several of my photographs; one of the black & white prints was originally made in Glen Nant, a little burn flowing gently amongst the green undergrowth. On revisiting it, I’d forgotten how the original had been made whilst lurking, troll-like, under a small wooden bridge:
A repeat of a photo made some years ago – I’d forgotten that I was actually hiding, troll-,like under a small bridge to make the original!
No trip to Argyll would be complete without visiting old friends in Inverawe. In particular, Old Friend, my favourite willow tree, is still standing as characterful and gnarly as ever.
And all is well with the world
West Woods of Ethie
My friend Tom and I went for a stroll in the West Woods of Ethie in Angus. Not a woodland I’d encountered before, but it was quite magical in some ways – quite conscious of lurching from one clearing to another, surrounded by the characteristic shapes of beech trees in their green and yellow-orange autumn plumage.
For a slightly more immersive view of the woods… click this and wait a while 🙂
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Glen Lednock: Trees
More experiments with the Olympus 7-14mm lens: a study in trees around Glen Lednock.
In the Woods
The Black Woods of Rannoch are a particularly favourite stroll. One of the Caledonian Forest reserves (the only one I know in Perthshire), they boast many native and rare flora species – Scots Pine, birch, rowans, alder, willow and juniper and lichens and fungi – as well as being home to wild deer (as I discovered when a stag suddenly trundled right across the path barely 20yd in front of me).
Interaction with mankind is a different matter. There’s something about the flow and depth of river water in the weir that creeps me out, but the text on the last sign-post says:
The Black Wood of Rannoch Canals
Before you you can see a ditch cut through the heather. This dates from around 1800 and once formed part of a York Building Company scheme to remove timber from the Black Wood of Rannoch. In order to extract the logs they devised a system of canals (the ditch before you was the lowest of the three canals).
The scheme provided a great deal of work and employed most of the men and women of the district. Over four miles of canals had to be dug using picks and shovels. The trees then had to be felled before being floated along the canals and then down a chute to Loch Rannoch. The logs were tied together in rafts for the journy down the loch to Kinloch Rannoch, then sent singly down the Rivers Tummel and Tay to their final destination at Perth and Dundee.
If the project had been a success, the Black Wood of Rannoch would have ben completely destroyed. In the event, the plan to float the logs down the rivers did not work. The scheme was abandoned, and the wood saved.
Employment just does justify desecration. The woods are too special.
Inverawe Impressions (10/10)
For the final instalment in this series of images from Inverawe, three of the most characteristic subjects: sweeping lines of larch branches; a closeup of a particularly characterful oak leaf; and the road leading ever on and beyond.
Thank you for following.
Inverawe Impressions (9/10)
A study of lines and shapes and forms of tree branches.
Inverawe Impressions (7/10)
The series of photos from the Inverawe estate continues with a study of ways to enjoy the landscape. Ben Cruachan (aka the hollow mountain, because it was hollowed-out for the hydro-electric scheme) stands 1126m (3694ft) high. There’s fishing in the lily-pond.
Inverawe Impressions (6/10)
About 15 minutes into the regular walk route – large red (spiky!) berries, birch and willow trees spreading their branches, and two collapsing fence-posts – a pleasantly futile gesture of keeping nature at bay.
Inverawe Impressions (5/10)
The study of shapes and lines of trees in Inverawe continues. This time, we span all the ages from a young wayside beech sapling to my favourite goat willow (Salix caprea), the Old Friend in an increasing state of collapse (but none the less loved for that!).
Inverawe Impressions (4/10)
A study of space-filling tree lines around Inverawe, Argyll.
Inverawe Impressions (3/10)
This episode is a study of green tree foliage and roads.
Inverawe Impressions (2/10)
Part 2 of an ongoing series of posts about the Inverawe estate in Argyll.
This time, we concentrate on mankind’s intrusion into nature. For the most part, the laird leaves the woodlands alone, untouched; however, the Forestry Commission clear-felled the slopes of Ben Cruachan, initially leaving the mountainside bare but there are now young trees beginning to grow in the barren patches. The unfortunate consequence has been damage to some of the water-courses, resulting in culverts that used to flow with beautiful clear peaty water now stagnant and clogged-up with algae.