Views From The Kitchen

Alloway’s auld haunted kirk was the location of the demonic gathering of witches in Robert Burns’ classic poem “Tam o’ Shanter”. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the story which was first published in 1791, here’s a summary of the opening verses, just to set the scene…

Having spent the evening carousing in congenial company in a warm, dry inn, our hero Tam finally sets out reluctantly into the wild, stormy night to go home, to his wife. (Where sits our sulky sullen dame. Gathering her brows like gathering storm. Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.)

Knowing the journey home through wind and rain to be dangerous, he keeps his eyes open for supernatural peril. (Whiles glowring round wi’ prudent cares, lest bogles catch him unawares.) On the way, he has to pass the old church (the auld kirk) in Alloway, whare ghaists and houlets nightly cry. As he draws near, he sees the place is ablaze with light (Kirk-Alloway seem’d in a bleeze). Not only that, it seems that there’s some sort of a shindig in progress (and loud resounded mirth and dancing). Emboldened by his inebriated state, he urges his horse, his gray mare, Meg, onward to get a closer look…

Although Burns doesn’t specify a date for the story, it seems fair to recount the events today – on Hallowe’en.

I visited the scene a shade over two years ago and got the following atmospheric shot as dusk fell. While the council had seen fit to install some external lighting, there was no sign of the warlocks and witches in a dance witnessed by Tam… Still, I did manage to get this spooky photo of the ruined church.
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Craignethan Castle, a Historic Scotland property, is located in the Clyde Valley. The castle was built in the early 1530s and only lasted as a fortification for about 50 years before being demilitarised. Construction was started by an illegitimate son of James Hamilton, the 1st Earl of Arran – Sir James Hamilton of Finnart. Sir James went on to become Master of Works to King James V from 1536 to 1540. He might have continued in this post for longer had he not fallen from royal favour and been executed for alleged treason in 1540.

One well known guest at the castle was Mary, Queen of Scots. Forced to abdicate in 1567 while imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle, she escaped the following year and was sheltered/entertained for a while at Craignethan Castle.
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I didn’t leave Ballachulish until the sun had set, so my drive down to Oban began in the dusk and ended in the dark. That was a pity since it seems to be an attractive drive. However, the Oban plan was for after-dark shots, so this didn’t matter too much. The first objective was to drive up to McCaig’s Folly.

I had planned to go out to the observation platform and get a shot of Oban from overhead, with the various different street lights and window lights and all their different reflections. I got a shot of that several years ago with my then “camera of the day” that I wanted to try to repeat – and hopefully improve upon – with my current camera. However, I think the floodlights can’t have been on then since shooting between them made it pretty much impossible this time. I had to settle for this dramatic shot from the inside…
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The weather’s been good for the past few days, so I was up pretty early this morning to head off up towards Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe. When you drive from Glasgow up the A82 to Fort William, you cross Rannoch Moor. Once you’ve made the ascent to the moor, you pass between two lochs in fairly short order. Little Lochan na-h’Achlaise is first on the left and then you pass the larger Loch Ba on the right. If you remain on the road, you see little of Loch Ba, while the views over Lochan na-h’Achlaise are much better.

I took a short break in Fort William last spring (note to self – I really must get some of my photos from that trip posted here!) and crossing the moor that time, I merely stopped and shot a couple of frames from the roadside. My excuse was that it was really windy and cold; the stop had not been planned and I was quite late getting away from Glasgow. This time, however, Rannoch Moor featured at the top of the schedule. After stopping at the same place as last year, I walked across the moor and down to the waterside.
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I’ve been staying over in Edinburgh for a couple of days to allow me to attend a training course for work. This evening, after returning to my hotel and freshening up, I wandered up to Princes Street to take a look at the Winter Wonderland. I have already seen a number of shots from the event such as this one and this one, so I had a rough idea of what to expect. In the end, this is my favourite from the several shots I took.
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I’ve visited Dunure, a few miles south of the town of Ayr, on several previous occasions and I’ve had a particular shot in mind that I wanted to try to get for a while now. I set out earlier today hoping to catch the setting sun illuminating the side of the ruined castle walls.
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I went for a run today with Carol and we ended up at McCaig’s Folly, Oban. I got this shot from the viewing platform, a couple of hours or so after sundown.

The view is looking roughly north-west, past the tip of the small island of Kerrera which sits across the mouth of Oban Bay. Coming in from the right beyond that we see, the tip of the island of Lismore, before the hills of the mainland appear again faintly in the distance. The large brown church building in the centre of the image is St Columba’s Cathedral.
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