SKYE, HARRIS, LEWIS - June 2nd - 14th 2009
A photographic tour / workshop to some of the most memorable sites of the Hebrides, with an additional 3 days exploring Glencoe.
Join us on the fifth collaborative tour with Boston based photographer Lance Keimig.
$3595 full fee, $645 single supplement, $300 low number supplement.
A 12 day tour based at 3 different locations –
- Glencoe 3 nights,
- Isle of Lewis 5 nights,
- Isle of Skye 4 nights.
12 nights 3 or 4 star bed and breakfast accommodation, with all travel, including ferries, included. Also 4 picnic lunches in the field.
And there will be plenty of photographic support and chat from both Lance and Sam available as appropriate.
Our base for the first 3 nights is only another hour’s drive, so we’ll arrive at Glencoe during the afternoon. We will be staying at the Clachaig Inn, halfway down the glen. It’s a thriving old inn / hotel popular with climbers and walkers with dramatic walks, photography and scenery on the doorstep. Sometimes there is live music in the ‘Boots Bar’, featuring talented local and touring musicians. We will stay 3 nights here, so there will be more than 2 full days to explore Glencoe, Loch Leven, Glen Etive and Rannoch Moor.
Throughout the tour we will strive to give you plenty of time to photograph at your chosen pace. Occasionally we stop for brief photo opportunities, but mostly we visit locations with scope for some in depth photography. There will be a couple of longer walks, and we will photograph late at night a few times, most particularly at Callanish Standing Stones in Lewis and at Eilan Donan which is lit at night.
On Friday we will head to Harris and Lewis, the northernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides. Our drive takes us further north, through Fort William and up to Skye, through the Five Sisters of Kintail, and past the well known castle at Dornie, Eilan Donan. On Skye we carry on up to the ferry terminal at Uig for an early evening ferry acroos the Minch, to Tarbert on the island of Harris. Our base for the next five nights is midway between Callanish and Carloway on the west coast of Lewis. Loch Roag Guest House is a modern custom built 4 star establishment, where we will be comfortable and close to some of the best sites on Lewis. The west coast is a spectacular mix of sandy bays and cliff top headlands. The little fishing port of Ness is at the northern tip of Lewis, and also the dramatic Butt of Lewis lighthouse.
Stornoway is a flourishing town and ferry terminal on the east coast of the island. Across the busy harbour is Lews Castle with some extensive well managed woodlands, left to the town of Stornoway many years ago.
Harris is a smaller island than Lewis and divides into three very different areas. North Harris is mountainous and a natural barrier between Harris and Lewis. The west features some vast expanses of white sandy beaches and turquoise seas, backed by machair; this is the fertile sandy soils that support a surprisingly abundant plant life, and the flowering of the machair will be at its peak when we are there. The east of Harris is an infertile rocky landscape where the hardships of the effects of the Clearances hundreds of years ago can be appreciated. Crofters (tenant farmers) were cleared from the more fertile sandy lands in the west by landowners when it realised there was more profit in sheep on the land than the crofters themselves.
Tarbert, the ferry terminal, is the main village on Harris with shops and other facilities. Rodel is a small village at the south eastern corner, where there’s still a small fishing harbour, overlooked by the recently refurbished Rodel Hotel. Nearby on a hill is St Clement’s Church, the best example of a church building in the Hebrides.
On Wednesday we’ll catch the early morning ferry back to Skye, arriving in time for a day of adventure on some of the basalt formations of the Trotternish ridge. We’ll walk some of the dramatic rock pinnacles such as the Needle and the Prison, possibly going on up to the Table, before coming back down to sea level at Flodigarry.
Our accommodation on Skye is at the south end of the island. Gillian and Craig will give us a very warm welcome at the White Heather Hotel in Kykeakin. It is close to the Skye Bridge, and across the small harbour, full of pleasure boats is Castle Moil.
From here we’ll explore some of the best places on Skye, such as the Cuillins, the main mountains here, Portree, which is Skye’s main town, Elgol, a little village with great views across Loch xxx to the Cuillins and across the sea to the small isles of Eigg, Muck, Rhum and Canna.