I will be traveling to Scotland for 2 weeks. I will be landing in Edinburgh on July 7. I am starting to do my research as to places and towns to visit, any advise from those that have been there will be greatly appreciated.
Before anyone ask yes this is a photography trip. I am not into avian photography, prefer landscapes and cityscapes.
We spent a few weeks there a couple of years back, doing the Great Glen Way walk, visiting Oban, Fort William, various towns along the walk, Inverness, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Stirling. We’re going back soon, and we’ll do a big loop from Inverness out to the Isle of Skye, some places north of that, back to Inverness and then to Aberdeen. (Assuming that you are traveling by car, I’ll likely have more to say about some of your landscape interests after I return from the latter trip.)
I hesitate to launch into a full description, not knowing what your general plans might be. Do you have any specific plans yet?
I went to Scotland for about 10 days last year in late August/early September on a family trip (but of course I did some photography). We went to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, Stirling, and Dundee. I had such a good time, that I decided to go back six weeks later on my own for a photography specific trip focusing on landscape/architecture. That trip focused on the north west highlands and the Isle of Skye. A few high level thoughts...I think it will be quite crowded with tourism when you are there. I would have all of your accommodations booked ahead of time and probably most of your dinners as well if you plan to eat out at restaurants. You'll want/need a rental car to get around outside of the major cities and you won't want the rental car in the major cities (e.g. Glasgow/Edinburgh). If you are considering going to the Isle of Skye and/or the North West Highlands area, I can recommend the following book:
"Photographers Guide Isle of Skye and the North West of Scotland" by D.M. Hickey. IIRC, someone on FM had recommended it to me. You can purchase it directly from the photographer's website. While I found some of the small maps on the pages challenging to follow not being familiar with Scotland, the book had a lot of great information, suggestions, and general travel tips.
We spent a few weeks there a couple of years back, doing the Great Glen Way walk, visiting Oban, Fort William, various towns along the walk, Inverness, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Stirling. We’re going back soon, and we’ll do a big loop from Inverness out to the Isle of Skye, some places north of that, back to Inverness and then to Aberdeen. (Assuming that you are traveling by car, I’ll likely have more to say about some of your landscape interests after I return from the latter trip.)
I hesitate to launch into a full description, not knowing what your general plans might be. Do you have any specific plans yet?...Show more →
so far the itinerary is open other than landing in Edinburgh, like I mentioned prefer landscapes, architecture, castles etc...
will be traveling by car.
amv8 wrote:
I went to Scotland for about 10 days last year in late August/early September on a family trip (but of course I did some photography). We went to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Isle of Skye, Loch Ness, Stirling, and Dundee. I had such a good time, that I decided to go back six weeks later on my own for a photography specific trip focusing on landscape/architecture. That trip focused on the north west highlands and the Isle of Skye. A few high level thoughts...I think it will be quite crowded with tourism when you are there. I would have all of your accommodations booked ahead of time and probably most of your dinners as well if you plan to eat out at restaurants. You'll want/need a rental car to get around outside of the major cities and you won't want the rental car in the major cities (e.g. Glasgow/Edinburgh). If you are considering going to the Isle of Skye and/or the North West Highlands area, I can recommend the following book:
"Photographers Guide Isle of Skye and the North West of Scotland" by D.M. Hickey. IIRC, someone on FM had recommended it to me. You can purchase it directly from the photographer's website. While I found some of the small maps on the pages challenging to follow not being familiar with Scotland, the book had a lot of great information, suggestions, and general travel tips....Show more →
thanks, once I nail down the towns and cities we are going to visit I will be making the reservations..
amv8 wrote:
I would have all of your accommodations booked ahead of time and probably most of your dinners as well if you plan to eat out at restaurants.
Funny you should mention the bit about restaurants on Isle of Skye. Just today my wife came into the room to tell me that she had read that. We’re going to be there a bit off-peak — not the super busiest months — and one of the places we contacted today only had one reservation left for the night we wanted.
OP: Definitely book the accommodations there as soon as possible. They are limited and some are absurdly expensive.
The beautiful places in Scotland (Skye in particular) are absolutely crawling with tourists in the summer. However, sunrise and sunset are both at extremely unsociable hours so when the light is good you can still easily find solitude from anyone besides other similarly committed photographers. For OP's dates sunrise is at ~04:40 and sunset is at ~22:20. I recommend taking naps to catch them both...
amv8 wrote:
"Photographers Guide Isle of Skye and the North West of Scotland" by D.M. Hickey. IIRC, someone on FM had recommended it to me. You can purchase it directly from the photographer's website. While I found some of the small maps on the pages challenging to follow not being familiar with Scotland, the book had a lot of great information, suggestions, and general travel tips.
That book sounds very interesting. Do you — or anyone else following this thread — know of a way to purchase it in the United States other than ordering directly from the author? (I have an email out to him, but no answer so far.)
gdanmitchell wrote:
That book sounds very interesting. Do you — or anyone else following this thread — know of a way to purchase it in the United States other than ordering directly from the author? (I have an email out to him, but no answer so far.)
Thanks in advance.
I also tried looking it up, found it on Amazon, but only in Europe...
gdanmitchell wrote:
That book sounds very interesting. Do you — or anyone else following this thread — know of a way to purchase it in the United States other than ordering directly from the author? (I have an email out to him, but no answer so far.)
Thanks in advance.
I ordered it directly from the author last summer. While I can only speak for my experience, the author emailed me after receiving my order saying he would send it the next business day. I received the book six days after ordering. He also kindly responded to a couple of emails with some additional suggestions for me. My understanding is that the author is retired, so the book isn't getting updates, but he does have supplemental chapters in digital form for free on his website.
I wonder if you would mind sharing the email address with me in a PM — so that I can see if you used the same address that I have.
Thanks.
amv8 wrote:
I ordered it directly from the author last summer. While I can only speak for my experience, the author emailed me after receiving my order saying he would send it the next business day. I received the book six days after ordering. He also kindly responded to a couple of emails with some additional suggestions for me. My understanding is that the author is retired, so the book isn't getting updates, but he does have supplemental chapters in digital form for free on his website.
QuantumTarsus wrote:
Now, this is a timely post. My wife and I are also heading to Scotland for 2 weeks in mid-May. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.
We might see you there. :-)
BTW, thank you to “amv8” for sharing an email address for D. M. Hickey, the author of the book mentioned earlier in the thread. I wrote to him and he sent a nice reply right away… and explained the issues with sending copies of the book to the USA right now, especially on short notice.
We're flying out on May 15 and landing in Glasgow. We're doing a week semi-guided tour of the Highlands via train before spending the last 5ish days in Edinburgh.
It would require a time eating binge but Thomas Heaton has 25+ YT videos from his trips to Scotland. If you are interested search on YT / Thomas Heaton and then Scotland in his search line.
