I processed another spool of 35mm HP5+ and it turned out to be more pictures of Callanish I from September. I believe there are still at least one or two more rolls of film from there. Maybe I’ve got a magic porridge pot but instead of porridge it keeps on churning out rolls [...]

I think yesterday’s negatives did print OK. This one is Eilean Donnan castle. Even if you don’t know the name you might’ve seen it in one or more of…oooh…dozens of movies. It’s a very photogenic castle with a very photogenic landscape, and we were blessed with a very photogenic sky that day.

Going up the coast north from Callanish you get to Dun Carloway broch. A big Iron Age fortified stone round tower, big enough to hold a small village and its livestock in safety if the village was attacked (although whether brochs were often needed for defensive purposes is up for debate). They have [...]

Callanish III is maybe the most visited of the Callanish sites other than Callanish I. Mostly because it’s so easy to get to. It has an inner circle and an outer circle, so it looks really busy with all those stones. As with so many of the Callanish sites the stones have [...]

Last weekend I went up to Caithness. That’s the very top-right corner of mainland Scotland. It’s rich with archaeology; but I’d never stopped in the region, only ever driven through on the way to or from Orkney.

So I hired a wee car, drove on up on the Friday night, and slept in the [...]

Hooray! Hooray!
President Bush is coming to Britain this week.
I’m so excited. I’m going to go and see him. I am! I am I amIamIamIam.
Oh wait – I’ve got to wash my hair that day. Too bad – his loss.

Callanish VIII is one of the stranger stone settings – a semi-circular arrangement right on a cliff edge. Last time I was up there it was a pretty ugly site. Corrugated iron sheets lying around, telegraph poles and power lines running through. Since then the place has been tidied up a lot [...]

It’s about time I got to my Callanish photos!
The first time I visited Callanish it pretty much left me cold. Which was a surprise. It is an incredibly interesting and complex site with circles and avenues of stone, a chambered cairn in the middle, incredible views over the countryside and Loch Roag. [...]

Hah – so much for Callanish…I’d forgotten that I had Dunnottar Castle pictures to do before that. Many of our Scottish castles are variations on the tower house theme – a strong fortified residence – which doesn’t fit with many peoples’ ideals of battlements and towers and moats and drawbridges and…well, you get the [...]

I found I still have lots of Orkney pictures (Ring of Brodgar and Stones of Stenness mostly) to deal with before I get to Callanish and the rest of the Western Isles. So I’ve got some (almost 100) of the Brodgar pics done. I may still get to some Callanish pics before the [...]