Return to Loch Katrine

re-visiting the location of my most popular YouTube video to date…

 

Location: Loch Katrine, Stirling, Scotland
Location type: Loch / Woodlands
Park (what3words): ///sundial.rags.slipped (where I normally park) - parking charge
What to shoot: loch, reflections, wildlife, woodlands, mountains
When to visit: any time of year.

I had only a few hours to spare one sunny Sunday morning so I decided to stay relatively local and re-visit Loch Katrine which is just over an hour from where I live.
I had visited Loch Katrine four times since September 2021, but only one of those trips had yielded a video, albeit my most popular video to date on YouTube, so I was keen to re-visit and make another short video.

I was the only visitor in the carpark when I arrived at Loch Katrine shortly after sunrise.
I paid the fee for a 4hr visit then headed out along the road which hugs the northern side of the loch, pausing at the waterfalls of Allt na Cailliche to check a location I shot at back in January of this year but didn’t blog or vlog about. The water levels were low, unsurprising as we’d just enjoyed a relatively dry and un-seasonally mild spell of weather, so I continued further along the road, past the outflow from the Glen Finglas falls and headed into the woods around the base of Am Priosan (which if my Gaelic is correct, translates as “The Prison”) I have no idea why Loch Katrine has a peak called “The Prison” but as the nearby island Varnach (now called Ellen’s isle) was a stronghold of the clan MacGregor, I’m guessing it’s something to do with them!

My walk around Am Priosan was cut short when I discovered a tent in the woods and, given it was still early on a Sunday morning I decided to retreat back to the road rather than disturb the camper(s) by shooting video and photographs around their tent. (I’ll return to the spot another time as it definitely had potential for some nice woodland images)

Back on the road I continued round to the first views of Ellen’s Isle and the distant hills beyond.
The small un-named isle in front of Ellen’s Isle was still in shadow and I liked the contrast between the lit island and the shadowy one, so I grabbed a few images here and also took some time to record the sounds of the geese out on the loch. (which were extremely loud!)

After a while I packed the camera away and headed round towards a tree I’d found on my last visit, but failed to take a decent image of, hoping for better luck on this occasion. I didn’t have any luck again.

Just beyond the tree a waymarked path climbed quickly through the woods to the right and up onto a forest track. Unsure of where the path lead (and being stuck for time) I decided to make a mental note to investigate the path online and to return to the spot in the future.
(I later discovered that the path is the beginning of the Primrose Hill walk route (see walkhighlands for details: Primrose Hill Walk)

Returning to the road, I searched for a spot to safely launch my new Drone (DJI Air 2) but couldn’t find a suitable spot. This part of the loch has many overhead power lines and the trees hug the shore meaning there is little clear space on the shore from which to fly.

I had intended to return to a small beached area I knew further along the loch but the time spent recording the geese, then the detour up the hillside had eaten into my available time and I had to reluctantly return back towards the carpark.

By the time I reached the spot I’d been shooting at earlier, the sun had cleared the hills and the once dark island was bathed in golden light. I couldn’t resist a reshoot of the scene so that I could compare images with and without shadows on the island.

It was a casual 20 minute stroll back towards the car-park, and I wandered, camera in hand, snapping anything which grabbed my attention.

As I approached the falls of Allt na Cailleach I noticed that the sun was now dramatically backlighting the birch trees high above the road. Unable to set-up a tripod (I was after-all on a road!) I hand-held some images of the trees, unsure if they’d be sharp enough to use.

Ironically these final shots are probably my favourite from the walk and just shows that so long as you keep your eyes open for potential images, there are photos everywhere!