Scotland Road-trip August 2022 Day 4

As we started into day 4 of our adventure, spirits were high and we woke at 5am to prepare for the hike up towards the stunning Old Man of Stor, which was still being covered by flowing clouds just like the evening before, now Diarmuid had warned me that it was quite a considerable hike and not to under estimate it, so with this in mind I was up and ready before both of them and headed off in earnest towards the destination, with the words of advice from Diarmuid ringing around in my head, “when you get to the fork in the path, turn left “

Setting off in the dark I was excited to see this icon up close for myself, I had of course seen many images taken of the stacks on the mountainside before and hoped that I would get there in time before the light arrived, and this was even if we got light as the adventure so far had proved interesting in this regard. Upon reaching the fork I of course took the left path and not long after realised that I seemed to be going away from my destination, round many winding paths I continued my hustle up, going left and right and left again. It seemed that I was going away from the spike that I could now see above me, shrouded by ebbing and flowing clouds all around it . Suddenly I spotted a gap in the verge that looked as if it would bring me directly to my spot, so off I went in the dusk light following the path that had been forged by many before me, this path however quickly became thinner until it totally disappeared, I looked and saw another path just ahead so forged on, brave and confident that I would be ahead of my friends and also that they would be right behind me to advise if needed. Each step I took I questioned my path until one step too far and down I went into a bog, right up to my left knee. Now to say I was shocked was an understatement, I was stuck in a bog, on a shortcut, in the dark and it seemed my comrades weren’t going to be coming to my rescue anytime soon. Thankfully I had both tripods in my hand and after what seemed like 20 minutes I managed to pry myself out of my new found hole and then had the task quickly emerging of trying to re-find the path that I had so bravely created. I was gassed out and when I finally managed to regain some bit of orientation I was close to being back on the right route, albeit now far behind on the time that I had given myself to get up well in time for the light to arrive. To make matters worse I had decided to layer up and also have my wet’s on which ended up turning me into a soaking wet, wreaked and muddy photographer on a hapless journey towards the top. Even the sheep that I passed seemed to laugh at me for this error in judgment, or perhaps they could smell me from a far .

Arriving at the first plateau just as the sun was breaking the distant horizon I took the opportunity to rest, de-layer for all of 5 minutes before layering up again with the feeling of incoming rain, I could now see my quarry up ahead of me and a series of many many many steps that I would have to take to reach it, I was never going to make it time for the fast approaching sunrise light.

I set up my Camera and pointed it towards the main feature of the old man of Stor, a neddleesque pillar sticking right out from the mountain, crossed my fingers took a deep few breathe and started a time-lapse, still cursing myself for my ill planned route and wondering would it be a wasted struggle. Suddenly all hell broke loose, the clouds parted and the most incredible bursts of light broke through and illuminated the cloud that had been dancing in and out around the stack gloriously, this was followed by screams of joy from way up on the hill, those screams were of course Diarmuid and at that point I knew that they at least had made it to the top and were also catching this glorious light show that had developed.

My time-lapse was going to be incredible and I had also managed to crack off a few shots before deciding to brave up, and set off on the what seemed light 10,000 steps that would lead me to the top. Now to say that this part was arduous was an understatement, I was gassed out, soaking wet and kinda miserable that I had missed the show from the main viewing point, however I pushed on up, stopping when I needed to, taking a breath, a shot and re-adjusting my bag before repeating more or less the same thing over and over again. Meanwhile I could still hear the shouts from Diarmuid ahead of me, getting banger after banger which egged me on even more to reach them. Upon reaching the next plateau, I could finally see just how big these structure were and could also see my two friend up on a ridge ahead of me, I called to them but they didn’t respond, rude I thought. I called again and heard Diarmuid shout back from what seemed like the totally opposite direction. Where was he and who were these two people above me, at that point I was close to giving up as it seemed once again that I had gone the wrong way .

My misery was quickly broken however when I heard Diarmuid call down to me in the form of a very popular TikTok video, Ezekiel & Tony, this gave me the lift I needed as I knew now that they were in fact ahead of me, although not the two people that I had originally assumed they were. I continued up and could see that they were right at the very top, enjoying the views and the ever changing conditions of dancing clouds

The morning was far from over however as the light show hadn’t finished quite yet, we were treated to another burst of glow which lit up the clouds that continued to envelope and reveal the icons, cue another amazing time-lapse and of course some shots of this action all the while being serenaded by the cries of joy from Diarmuid above me, what he didn’t realise was that the cliffs sides of the mountain acted as a natural amphitheatre and he needed have been shouting at all, simply talking was good enough for us to communicate even though we were hundreds of feet apart.

Now I have said during the filming of this trip that the destination is not the only thing on the Isle of Skye that is appealing, the journey to each location was just as stunning and as we headed off towards the next destination we decided to visit a spot called Talasker Bay, much to our dismay and also the dismay of the van the road to it was more like a pathway that had only been used by horse and carts in the past, it wasn’t at all kind to the suspension and even tho we finally made it to the end, the thought of taking an extra 30-40 hike from the road wasn’t appealing to any of us in the end. Off we went again meeting some young highland cows along the way and passing some incredible mountain ranges which lined the route to Elgol, reached by a dramatic road through the Red Cuillins and Strath Suardal with superb views passing the ruined Cill Chriosd and it’s fascinating and superbly located graveyard, the final spot that we would get to shoot to finish off day 4 of our amazing trip to the Isle of Skye.

Day 4 will be remembered as action packed and it wasn’t over yet, we were about to embark on another adventure to a stunning place and meet a fascinating character along the way, however I will continue this story as part of day 5 of the adventure, you can read on or you can watch the series in the link below.

Images below taken from this adventure, If you would like to purchase one for your own wall, please get in touch.