A Coastal Bothy

August 10, 2025

Is there anything better than a wander along a quiet stretch of coastline, stopping at a beautifully located photogenic bothy? Quite literally my ideal walk, and this is one I’d be wanting to do for a while. I’m hesitant to drive north on Skye during the busy season… the roads are wild with rental cars (there’s currently one in a ditch outside the gates of where we stay, he drifted off the road because he was jet lagged, and that’s just one example of many incidents we’ve seen recently) and nearly every place to walk is incredibly busy. But, we risked it, and I think a particularly windy day meant the numbers of visitors were kept to a minimum.

This bothy is known as something else, but, and I know it’ll have a tiny impact (if any at all) I’ve been making a point recently to not ever give exact locations or names of the places I visit and photograph. I really don’t mean to gatekeep, that’s not the aim, I just really want to urge people to wander and find their own spots and their own places to go. I’m not a fan of this ‘tell me where to visit, tell me what to photograph’ mentality that social media is made up of these days. You see it a lot here… on Skye, the place being treat like a checklist of things to stop off at quickly and photograph and then go to the next place on the list. Nobody seems to want to wander and stumble upon things anymore.

I didn’t mean to go on a rant there, and to be honest, this bothy in particular is pretty well known so it’ll be no bother for you if you want to find it yourself BUT I’ll still do my tiny part to not add to the problem of over-visiting and lazy tourism.

Anyways, this coastal bothy is a corker. It’s rustic and wooden inside, with huge windows at the front, looking over the water. The light in that front room is incredible, and if I had the balls I’d love to be in there over a stormy night and watch the sea. I can imagine sitting on that stool with a flask of coffee and some binoculars and having the time of my life.

I love that people have started a collection of bones and shells, probably gathered on their walks, and set on the windowsill like trophies.

Winter Surfing

July 28, 2025

I’m continually surprised I’m not a water person. I love being by the coast, but I absolutely do not want to be in the sea. I find it strange though, as I’ve lived by the water my entire life. I grew up on the North Coast of England, spending my youth and my teenage years in and around Whitley Bay. Although thinking back, I was definitely more inclined to be found in the bars and clubs on North Parade than actually on the beach.

In my 20s I scoured every coastal village and quiet sandy beach I could find in Northumberland, then in my 30s I wandered further North, following the sea to the edges of Scotland. Still, absolutely no inclination to enter that water.

However, after befriending a surfer over the last few years, I found an interest in the surfing community and spent a couple of weekends watching them and their vans, chatting and scouting each other in the water, on the Isle of Lewis and the over at Golspie. While the activity itself still didn’t appeal to me, the community and atmosphere did.

I’d be pottering about in the van, making a cup of tea, while my friend was out in the water (I had no idea how long surfers went out for and at one point genuinely wondered if he had drowned and what I should do) and a pair of unknown surfers wandered past and casually just started chatting, asking about my friend and how it was out there. After spending the day there, I noticed that this seemed to pretty much be the norm, and having a good chat was just part of the surfing process, even in the depths of winter.

A lot of cups of tea were had by myself, warming my fingers after fiddling with my camera out in the frost. I still can’t believe people willingly enter Scottish water in winter. And yes, that van may look familiar… a few months later it was painted half brown and turned into my own little cabin for a summer.

Tokavaig to Portree

July 20, 2025

A few years ago, when we were still based on a pitch in the Cairngorms, we’d jump in the car (at that time, we had a nondescript Kia Rio as our daily drive, it was a little corker and we loved it) and head up to Skye for our dose of mountains, moody skies coastal walks.

The visit previous to this, we’d camped at Glenbrittle in a tiny tent and been eaten alive by midges (see the photos in this post), which we didn’t fancy repeating and with it being more towards the winter end of the year, we booked ourselves a nice, civilised AirBnB. Always take advantage of those off-season prices when you can.

A night in a cosy cottage, with a hot bath (absolute luxury when you live on a campsite and only ever wash in public showers) then a day of wandering and walking, firing off a roll of medium format film between Tokavaig, Ord, and all the way up to Portree.

Short trips like this, I find, are absolutely vital for me. I love the novelty of new surroundings, being inspired to get my camera off, but being able to get back to my tiny home and my routine after just a couple of days. It’s all about balance.