rhythmaning | Entries tagged with clouds

The first couple of weeks in February saw several spectacular sunsets. This wasn't the most dramatic (in which the sky looked as if it was on fire, and has been well documented, though not by me!), but it was the one I was able to photograph.

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The Islay sky was majestic, cloud-filled and impressive.

Then the sun shone.

A walk on Christmas Eve gave rise to a glorious sunset.

After my long day’s walk, I took a rest day. I had intended to spend the afternoon in Royal Lochnagar distillery, or perhaps a bar, but instead I went off hunting stone circles.

I went first to Midmar, one of the strangest circles I’ve seen – I had been there before: the circle is in a churchyard, which was built around it. It is quite bizarre, and feels quite wrong: Christianity appropriating an ancient sacred site.

On the way back – towards Lochnagar – I noticed another circle marked on the map near Tarland, so I diverted and sought it out. Almost destroyed by quarrying in the 19th century, Tomnaverie is on the brow of a hill, where the setting sun in mid summer apparently sets over the peak of Lochnagar (the mountain, not the whisky!).

Tomnaverie is managed by Scottish National Heritage, and they had a map of other sites nearby; and so I hared off around Aberdeenshire, looking for a couple of others. Next up was Easter Aquhorthies, which took a while to find (not least because of obscure signs marking the “Gordon stone circle trail”).

Last up was a circle at Daviot. Like Midmar, this had also been appropriated: the circle at some point had been filled with stones, after the main circle had fallen into disuse. Another curious place!

All these circles were easily accessible: more alive than Stonehenge, say, and far less crowded than Avebury.

(I recently came across negatives from Callanish, my all-time favourite group of circles and a magical place; sometime I shall scan them, and post them here.)

I spent several days last month in Braemar, walking in the hills in the south east edge of the Cairngorms. Some of these hills are very remote – one day was one of the longest I have spent in the hills, a 25 mile round trip (that's almost a marathon, with a couple of munros to climb thrown in, too!) from Linn of Dee up Geldie Burn, halfway to Blair Atholl: there were clear views of the Bheinn a Ghlo massif directly south, mountains which mark the western edge of the Cairngorms.

There were a couple of shorter days, too – a lovely walk up Badoch burn to An Socach, and a much harder walk into the face of a 50mph wind up Glas Tualichain.

There were some beautiful evenings and mornings, too.

I took pictures, natch…

Whilst I climbed the crags to watch the sunset, I realised that it was over twenty five years since I had climbed Arthur’s Seat at dawn, too, to watch the sunrise; and even, that day, it had been cloudy, so I hadn’t seen the sunrise. (There was a girl involved. It wasn’t a wasted trip.) Given the glorious winter weather Edinburgh had, and the fact that dawn was relatively late, meaning I didn’t have to get up particularly early, I decided to climb Arthur’s Seat the following morning.

It was fascinating watching the sky change from ink-black through mauve to orange and then blue.

I wasn’t alone on the top of Arthur’s Seat: there were several American teenagers, part of an evangelical prayer group. One of them spoke to others, about saying prayers and then spending some time alone in thought, making sure they remembered the sunrise. It was odd having them turn what I considered a pagan event into a Christian one. Still, they didn’t really disturb me.