Skye 2019: Part Three

20/21 June 2019

With my sat nav finally finding me at Mealt falls, I typed in the address for Duntulm bay, and set off, aiming to drive past the Quiraing, then turning north at Uig.  (in hindsight, I could have just stayed on the A855! Duh!!) Anyhow, according to the sat nav, I clearly needed to drive back past most of the route I had taken, but it almost immediately tried to turn me down a dead end road, just past the road I needed to take. It actually did this three times over the week, before I recognised the proper turn off. If you are using satalite navigation to get to the Quiraing, do not follow it down the dead end road where the residents have kindly put a hand written sign up stating ‘this doesnt lead to the Quiraing’, because, funnily enough, they are right! If you are heading towards a small group of houses, its the wrong road. If coming up from the Mealt falls/Portree direction, its a small B road just before then, that heads off towards Sartle, and Uig. My apologies to those residents for turning round there so many times…!

Once on the right road, finding Duntulm was pretty easy, as it was just along the one road at the top of the Trotternish peninsular. As I came around the bend. I saw the bay, and was pleased to note that there was a long lay bay for cars to park so they could visit the area. I wasnt so pleased to notice exactly what NO advanced planning does for a photo shoot. There was no beach…and the tide was coming in. The nice pebbled beach shot I had hoped for, was out of the window clearly! (I didnt learn from this either – I forgot to look up tide times (and indeed, sunrise/set positions) all week – not that the internet was reliable enough to check). Maybe I should be thinking of planning a trip a little better next time, rather than just travelling on a whim with a few basic ideas while I am actually away in situ…

On arrival, I decided to scout the area out with River, and found that the castle was within a few minutes walk of the parking spot. The castle was a ruin, sitting on a rocky outcrop and the area was blocked off with signs warning of danger. Looking at the castle position, I didnt think it was going to have many years left here.. and indeed, some of it may have already fallen to the sea beneath. It was a bit hard to tell as the remaining castle was just a few low walls that were over grown, or in pieces. I saw some people had ignored the signs, and were having a look over the site, wandering about fairly easily.  I decided to join them eventually. I had seen a stunning spot that one photographer had used, which had a fantastic rocky foreground, looking out to the sea and the little island out there (I believe its called Tulm island). I couldnt find the spot anywhere, and was totally perplexed as to where the photo had been taken from, thinking in the end, that maybe it was an older photo, and that the bit of wall had fallen by now.  As I went to leave, I was blessed with a burst of sunlight over the ruins, which really brought the place alive. Thankfully I had my mobile phone on me, and caught it. (*Edit* I have since found out that the photo I liked, was actually taken in Tulm Bay, which appears to be the other side of the castle)

From here, River and I hiked down the hill towards the sea, to see what the view might be from below the castle looking up at it. I liked this view a lot, and started across the rocks towards the cliff base, to get an idea of shots. River began to struggle a little, so I eventually just snapped a photo of the Castle from where I stood. (this is the shot you can see on the Skye location and map page) My thinking was, that in the morning, I would try again for a sunrise, hoping too, that the tide would be lower, so that I might get further round.  The idea may have been a good one but I wasnt bargaining on the night I was about to have.

I returned to the camper, and decided to have a go at a beach shot anyway. I had seen some really nice rocky lines heading out into the ocean, and thought that these might at least make a nice foreground to practice on. Seascapes are not my strong point and I dont feel as comfortable with these, so I felt this would be a good opportunity to give them a practice, even if they didnt have a nice sandy bit in the photos. As I walked down the road, I couldnt see any obvious paths to the beach, so ended up just carving my own way through the grass. There were very large pebbles lining the beach between the grass and the flat rocky spurs I was aiming towards, so River and I carefully picked our way across, finally coming to a bit I liked. I crouched down, and framed up what I thought might be a nice shot, and started working on these, using my ND filters to slow the waters. I moved a little, and took some more. These wern’t as nice as I hoped, and the tide was heading in pretty quickly, so I had to move back in a bit of a hurry. As I grabbed my bag, I hadnt noticed that I left one pocket open, and half my batteries flew out, two right into the water. I fished them out, but for the duration of the rest of the break, they refused to charge properly. Gagh! I am such a clutz!! As I moved back I saw another rocky spur and took some shots of that one, feeling slightly happier with this composition. I think I still have a lot to learn in this field of Landscape photography, but feel fairly happy with my early attempts.

The sky was getting fairly cloudy by now, and it was clear that if it continued, there would be no nice sunset, although I thought I would keep an eye open just in case. Luckily the camper was parked close enough to the castle and cliff that it wouldnt take me long to get into position if things changed. As I started back for the evening, I noticed on the far side of the bay, that a small group of people were setting up a bright yellowish tent. They would have a nice view of the bay in the morning, I mused, especially if the tide was out…

Oh how wrong I was.

Over the next hour or so, the sky got greyer, and night felt to have crept in much earlier than the previous one. There was a slight wind picking up, and eventually it started to rain. As the hours progressed this got steadily worse until I realised that I was sitting in absolute fear of the camper being blown off the whole edge. The rain hammered down so loud, that sleep was nearly impossible. I did eventually manage a few dozes in between the lulls of the intense, punishing rain, and the now howling wind. The van rocked pretty aggressivley from side to side for several hours, and my thoughts turned to the poor guys in the tent… I didnt expect them to have anything left of the canvas in the morning at this rate… If, indeed, I was still around to witness it myself…!

Eventually, at about 4ish, the worst of the storm passed over, and the wind finally died down. I managed to get to sleep at the now gentler sound of rain, only to be rudely woken up an hour or so later, by something outside the camper, scraping against the side. It stopped and I managed to start drifting off again, only for the sound to return. I layed in fear of what it might be, my now tired brain going fully into overactive overdrive mode. Eventually, I heard a sheep bleating, and realised the sound was a sheeps horn scraping the van. Envisaging deep creases being carved into the side of my camper, I jumped up, threw open the door and yelled ‘FECK OFF!!!’ I have no idea where ‘feck’ came from, and I am pretty sure the sheep wouldnt have cared less for my manners in not using a full swear word… but they all just stood and stared at me (in my head, they also stared at each other with that ‘what did she just say?’ ‘No idea!’ confused conversational look – such that an overtired, sleep deprived, delusional brain invents). I was too tired for this and stomped out in a foul mood an attempt to scare them. They just casually wandered away instead, giving me the occasional distainful look. So much for me being scary…

By now the rain had eased right off, but I was too awake to do anything but try and push on. I got myself ready, and let River sleep in,  as I stepped out to try for a dawn shot of the castle. I made my way down to the base of the castle and looked over to the campers. I was astounded to see the guys casually packing the tent down! They’d survived the night! The gorgeous view I assumed they would have, was completely non existent. Hopes for the tide being out were dashed when I realised that it was in fact, coming back in again and was at present only a little lower than last night. My dreams for a sunrise shot were also dashed by both a) the still heavy dark clouds overhead and b) the lighter sky showing up behind the castle pushing it into silhuette. Today was definately not feeling like a good day.

I settled myself in at the position I wanted, and decided to just wait out the weather, and to shoot what I could. I managed a few shots low down, then moved a little higher as the tide rose. I found the shots to be really dramatic. with the low light and fast moving angry clouds really helping to add to the drama. I sat through several heavy downpours, but none really lasted long enough to make me think of returning to the camper, and I found them strangely exhilarating to sit through. It helped that I loved what I was seeing in the back of the viewfinder, so I stayed and kept shooting. Eventually, patches of blue sky started arriving in among the grey cloud, and the day started to feel a bit better…