Staffin, Isle of Skye, Scotland, Spring
The sheer variety along Skye’s coastline is ridiculous.
Basalt columnar cliffs? Billion-year old boulders? White sand? Knife-edge sea stacks? Waterfalls? Sea caves? Skye’s got it all.
And—at An Corran, Staffin—there is the “Jurassic coast”.
As I’ve mentioned on this site before, Staffin’s An Corran gained national attention in 2002 when a local couple walking along the coast noticed a large three-toed lizard-like footprint in a slab of rock. Further exploration uncovered additional dinosaur footprints. Turns out that were likely produced by a creature akin to a Megalosaurus. These fossils are estimated to be around 160 million years old, which makes them the most recent dinosaur relics found in Scotland.
This is the main draw of An Corran. But for us, we were more interested in the cliffs and the coastline.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii using my Pentax SMC 28mm F3.5 prime lens. RAWs developed in Lightroom, then edited and finalised in Photoshop.
Staffin, Isle of Skye, Scotland, Spring by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Below the cliffs at An Corran, the rocky coastline is dotted with giant boulders, often situated on top of raised platforms. Millennia of coastal and wind erosion have carved them into fantastic shapes.
As the tide was out, we were able to fully explore the revealed geology of An Corran’s coastline. I enjoyed myself immensely, a veritable playground of geometry, leading lines, light and subjects to play with.
Beautifully sculpted and layered formations give a glimpse of time way before the dawn of humans. In the distance, Staffin island is bathed in golden light.
Picking my way around slippery slabs, moss, and seaweed, I lined up this composition of the raised boulder, with the basalt cliffs in the distance.
Even closer to the boulder, I was able to obtain a reflection of sorts in a rock pool.
This particular boulder I find amazing. No human intervention whatsoever. A chunk of rock broke off the nearby cliffs, rolled down onto the coastline. Over the course of aeons, water and wind washed and carved the surrounding rock, leaving this boulder sitting on its protected pedestal.
Amongst all the ankle-breaking fist-sized pebbles, this arrangement of stones caught my eye.
Further towards the northwest side of An Corran, the rocky coastline gives way to sand. I carefully navigate around, seeking a composition of these embedded boulders in the sand.
At the far northwestern edge of the beach, a crackin’ view of the Quiraing opens up. I relied on the sensor stabilisation of my camera to slow down the shutter as much as possible at f/22, whilst still getting a relatively sharp image. The result came out alright.