The Most Photographed House in Scotland

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We were all up and ready an hour before sunrise, however that wasn’t too antisocial as the sunrise is not until 8.45am in Scotland at this time of year. That said, like yesterday, there was no sunrise as the sky was completely covered by flat, white clouds. Not ideal for photography.

We went to a location in Loch Ba for the non sunrise and stayed there for about an hour to take some photographs anyway. The rain had turned to snow overnight, which bought some beauty to the scenery, despite the washed-out sky.

They don’t seem to take any chances on this road, we saw numerous snow-ploughs passing throughout the day. In fact one passed us as we were getting out of our minibus, and completely covered most of us in ice and snow. We’re sure he did that deliberately.

I also managed to take a step too far in a bog and water came over the top of my boots, soaking my feet and socks. I spent most of the rest of the day with painful, frozen feet.

The disadvantage of the late sunrise is that it rules out the narrow breakfast window at the hotel, so we went to some services slash gift-shop slash outdoors survival shop called The Green Welly Stop for breakfast. I didn't need any wellies, but I did need some new gloves as the ones that I had bought with me were not up to the standard required for Rannoch Moor.

After a few other stops to see some of the stunning scenery of Rannoch Moor, we went to the famous Blackrock Cottage, which is probably the most photographed house in Scotland. Nobody actually lives there, which is fortunate, as they would be fed-up to the back teeth of all the photographers turning up outside their house. It looks like it is in the middle of nowhere, which is the photographic appeal, but it is actually right beside the road to some ski-lifts.

There was then a final stop at the Coupall Falls before going back to the hotel for the evening, giving me a chance to put some warm and dry socks on.

Each evening, after dinner, we will be seeing some of each other’s best photographs. First up was me, which was definitely the best thing, otherwise I would have been totally intimidated by the standard of the others.

There’s no mobile signal in the hotel and only a patchy wifi in the public areas, which is taking a bit of getting used to.

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Photos

Blackrock Cottage
Remote to say the least.

Loch Ba
There was no sunrise, but converted to black and white, this was quite a rewarding picture.

Rannoch Moor View
A view over Rannoch Moor whilst the snow had settled.

Coupall Falls
The Coupall Falls and some mountains in the background.