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ISLE of COLL

end of May until the beginning of June 2002

All pictures taken on a film camera and processed on a flatbed scanner so the results are not too good. Using the automatic settings on an EpsonV550 Photo is quick, but files are over-sharpened.

We arrived on a Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry deciding to bring our car at the last minute. We were joining a holiday accessed through the ptes lead by Chris Gomersall http://www.chrisgomersall.co.uk/

OBAN

Oban shops

Swans at low tide in Oban

Working boat Oban harbour

Oban trawler

Boat engine

Spiky houses

Empty Cliad Bay

Machair

Early Purple Orchid

Standing stone at Totronald

Petrified buffalo?

Wave patterns in the sand

Lichens

Wonderful pebbles

Seaweed

HOGH BAY

Lovely lacy wave effects

A couple of 'penguins'

Sand patterns where the burn flows into the sea, taken on Ilford Delta 100 at

CLIAD BAY

Evening sky

Welcoming Sheep

The Study Centre Ballyhaugh

Sand Patterns

FEALL BAY

Sun is almost gone, the sheep are still up though it is after 22.00

We had bunk beds at the hostel and I got used to banging my head whenever I got up

More lacy stripes

Orville or Camel Sandstone

The Coll ones were remodelled with heather roofs

Reeds Ballyhaugh loch

Pool at Port-na-luing

Iris pseudacorus

HOGH BAY

Seal

Diana and Chris

Pristine sand

BLACKHOUSES were generally built with double wall dry-stone walls packed with earth and wooden rafters covered with a thatch of turf with cereal straw or reed. The floor was generally flagstones or packed earth and there was a central hearth for the fire. There was no chimney for the smoke to escape through. Instead the smoke made its way through the roof. The blackhouse was used to accommodate livestock as well as people. People lived at one end and the animals lived at the other with a partition between them

There is not much room in the houses so add-on rooms and overflowing into the garden is common. Brian just in the picture top left

Sand patterns

Looks a bit sinister

Rock garden

Thrift

Shells

Bloody cranesbill

Geranium sanguineum

Looking down on Feall bay

Cranesbills in their habitat

Arinagour and holed boat MV 'Faithful'

Hatching gull's eggs

Our first puffin

Gull in high key

Lobster pots

Floats lined up ornamentally in a garden

Our boat for the trip to photograph puffins on Lunga

LUNGA

Puffin looking into its burrow

From this point onwards, I used a better method of scanning

Manual focus using spot metering and compensating

Bluebells and primroses

What a poser!

Gull

Bird island

The gang pointing at puffins


Main Street Arinagour - it fascinated me

CLIAD BAY

Bas relief in the sand

River

Water flowing out to sea

Green sea

Wonderful sky

Grass and shadow


It was dazzling on the beach so I have treated these sand patterns to give that effect. The sand patterns were on the edge of the channel made by the burn flowing to the sea - like a mini escarpment


Colours worthy of Turner or Monet

This oystercatcher shouted at me until I left

DAY OUT

Mary, Peter and Helen did not fancy photographing a tern from a hide so went out exploring other parts of the island

Sheep

Highland Cattle

The Hebridean Study Centre where we were based

GRISHIPOLL

Ruined house Grishipoll

White House

They have hardly moved

Iris pseudoacorus

GRISHIPOLL

STONES

We found Grishipoll Bay and the most attractive stones we had ever seen

Stones in a rockpool variations

Rusty rock pool

Looking isolated and lonely in the very late evening, the Old White House or Grishipoll House overlooking Grishipoll Bay

Blonde reeds

Kingcups

Blonde reeds

Astrantia

Old castle

Sphagnum moss

Seaweed art

Pegasus

AROUND THE CASTLES
New castle	Breachacha House

New castle

Breachacha House

Barnacles

More seaweed art

A sea lettuce?

Old castle and turreted detail

FEALL BAY

Fulmars

Cliffs

Old Castle

Fulmars

Cotton grass

Sheep sheltering

Typical house

The Billingham on holiday

When the other members of the group saw our pictures from Grishipoll bay, they were very anxious to see for themselves, so we told them where they were taken and we all went back for another session.

GRISHIPOLL

STONES

in monochrome or duotone

Grishipoll beach the veined stone bank is only about 6 feet high everything is on a very small scale

Ian King on the left a technician from Dundee and Inversnaid who processed all our films each day

Thrift

MORE COLOURED STONES

Wedged stone

Part of the frame on the left

Farmhouse Sorisdale

SORISDALE

We went out in the late evening hoping to see some sea 0tters. We did not see them, but the sunset was very memorable. At the end of May the sun hardly sets, so we got effects that were new to us.

Croft

Round hut

Derelict cottage

Reflections in the wet sand

Evening towards Skye

Some highland cows crossing the burn

On the last morning on Coll, Helen got up at 05.00 and went out to have a last look round. A Cyclist was sleeping in a miniature tent at Hogh bay. There were no corncrakes to see or hear at the field.

HOGH BAY

The waves were pounding in

Limitations of a 100 Delta film in low light and windy conditions

Sand dunes

A cyclist was asleep in a tiny tent under an overhanging stone in the bay. I did not wake him.

Corncrake field

The return trip on the ferry was magical, the sea and sky were a translucent pearly blue with touches of white. The light was dazzling as it bounced off the tops of the waves. Unfortunately no pictures were taken.

View from the B&B at Oban

We drove home the following day, the cats were pleased to see us

ISLE of COLL

Part 2

April 2005

We made a second visit on our own staying at the Travelodge at Southfields near Carlyle on the way up, then at the Coll Hotel.

View from the hotel early morning	From hotel garden		Crossapoll
		GRISHIPOLL We rushed off to see whether the stones at Grishipoll were still as good
		and variation	Seaweed and something? Magnificent colours in the pools Snails
Seals	Colours in a rock pool
Underwater colour	Pink and Aquamarine	Very brightly coloured mini pebbles
Waves pounding the rocks	Wet Stones	Wave on the stones
		High key treatments	Fishing boat in the bay
		High key treatments
			Gift wrapped
	Red seaweed	Dyke	Dyke
	Feall Bay beach with sand patterns
	Sheep says 'au revoir'	Arinagour Hotel	We drove home in one go, Peter did not feel well so only did an hour's driving; Helen was tired after a eight hour effort.