Trotternish Peninsula, Isle of Skye, Scotland, Spring
The last series of photos from our Skye spring 2024 trip.
The last series of photos from our Skye spring 2024 trip.
There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to post these, because it concludes in a way that we’re no longer on Skye.
And that is always painful.
For this post, I’ve assembled a rag-tag of photos taken from around Skye’s Trotternish peninsula that didn’t really fit in with other posts. This includes:
Duntulm Bay, with the epic ruins of Duntulm Castle perched on top of cliffs of volcanic sill
The ridiculously clear views we got from near the Flodigarry coast, across the sea to the Torridon mountains on the mainland
I hope you enjoy these photo as much as I enjoyed seeing and taking them.
All photos shot on my Sony α7ii using my Pentax SMC 28mm F3.5 prime lens and Vivitar “Series 1” 70–210mm f2.8–4.0 zoom lens. RAWs developed in Lightroom, then edited and finalised in Photoshop.
Trotternish Peninsula, Isle of Skye, Scotland, Spring by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
The epic ruins of Duntulm Castle, perched on top of basalt cliffs nearly 100ft above the surf. Southwest of the ruins, the coast is made of volcanic sill intrusions, criss-crossing joints that make for wonderful compositions.
Further west away from the castle ruins we could even spot across the sea here, known as the Little Minch, the islands of Lewis and Harris. I couple of crystal clear rock pools helped me create some sort of coherent composition from the chaos of rock joints.
Closer to the castle ruins, the sun broke out from the clouds above the Quiraing, giving fantastic side light to this scene. These ridged tufts of grass made for a nice compositional leading line into the scene.
From Flodigarry, above Loch Langaig, a small ruin made for a nice composition, mimicking the shape of the distant mountains.
We were astounded when stopping at Flodigarry to see crystal clear views across the sea towards the Torridon mountains on the mainland. So clear you almost felt you could reach out and touch the mountains.
Further along the mainland, the unmistakable shape of Slioch (“the spear”), above Loch Maree, is immediately apparent, standing 3,219 ft above the sea.
Did you enjoy these photos?
Duntulm, Isle of Skye, Autumn
Duntulm Castle, the 17th century seat of the chiefs of Clan MacDonald of Sleat.
At Duntulm one can find the ruins of Duntulm Castle, the 17th century seat of the chiefs of Clan MacDonald of Sleat.
Duntulm (Dùn Thuilm in Scottish Gaelic) was originally a fortress built and inhabited by the Picts, an ancient Gaelic tribe. Then, like much of Great Britain, the Vikings arrived and claimed the site for themselves. Duntulm, and the rest of the Trotternish peninsula, was hotly contested and changed hands frequently until the 16th century when the Lord Of The Isles, Donhall Gorm (“Blue Donald”) seized the area, and started making improvements to the fort.
By 1730, the MacDonalds moved away from Duntulm, setting up a new castle on the Sleat peninsula of Skye. The castle and fortress at Duntulm was left to rot and ruin.
The ruins are perched high on the cliffs of Tulm Bay, affording commanding views back south along the coast and out across the sea towards the islands of Lewis and Harris.
A truly epic place.
All photos shot on my Fujifilm X-T2 using both my Samyang 35mm f/1.2 and Laowa 9mm f/2.8 lenses. I utilised a customised Pro Negative Standard film profile.
Gaining height as we head towards the ruins of Duntulm Castle, this is a shot looking back to the cliffs of Creag Orril and Creagan Iar. I can see why some benches were placed here.
Duntulm Castle, perched on a promontory of basalt rock and easily defendable on all sides.
An ultra-wide angle view of the ruins of Duntulm Castle. The coast around Duntulm heavily features these stepping-stone basalt rock formations.
My lovely Lisabet, getting close to the sea to grab those views. The rock around here puts me strongly in mind of the Giant’s Causeway of Northern Ireland.
Stormy conditions as we clambered around the Duntulm coast for compositions.
Beyond the promontory of Duntulm Castle the coast branches out into a variety of pools, shelves, platforms, clints and grikes called Ru Meanish.
Endless compositions for a weirdo rock formation fan like me.