Artist Travels: Scotland
Visiting Highland cows outside of Glasgow
August 2024 Wes and I headed out to fly to Edinburgh! We were meeting a few friends there to do a tour of part of that lovely country for just over a week. We were excited of course, and ready to get exploring the wild parts of the UK. We had a less than ideal flight situation involving weather delays and a few missed connections and rerouted flights that had us getting into the Edinburgh airport almost two days later than we had planned for. But despite the rocky start, we were not going to let that situation define the entire trip for us.
We started in the colorful city of Edinburgh, did some shopping, wandered the streets and a few ancient graveyards, ate at our first Scottish pub and watched the bagpipe tattoo performance at the Edinburgh castle.
Edinburgh is a beautiful city, the architecture is gorgeous and the people are fun and relaxed. The history that is prevalent on these streets was just palpable. I loved walking around the cobblestone streets and hearing all the colorful languages and accents. The landscape around the city was also beautiful to experience.
We also explored a unique museum of illusions and were able to tour the Edinburgh castle, where I was able to do a quick sketch of the castle walls. Quick and small was the name of the art game on this particular trip. There were many things limiting my ability to paint much, one of which was limited time, the other was the weather, as you’ll see later.
After a few days in Edinburgh, we headed out in a rental car to see more of the countryside, the things I was most excited to see. We stayed in Inverness and visited Stirling Castle on the way there. I tried to paint the beautiful gardens at this grand castle, but having only brought my water soluble gouache paint, and it happened to be letting down quite a heavy and constant drizzle with nowhere sheltered to sit, this particular painting didn’t really turn out. In fact, I gave up only about ten minutes in. This happened to be the theme of the rest of the trip, though I did manage to get a couple paintings, most of the time it was way too wet to even consider trying to paint. I drank as much of the landscape in with my eyes!
Leaving Inverness, we made a round about detour on our way to the Isle of Skye through Loch Ness and Urquhart castle. We didn’t see Nessie, unfortunately. But she very well could have been watching us explore the castle through the misty fog that covered the lake.
Another detour we made was to the Historic site of the Battle of Culloden. The famous battle where the Jacobites made a valiant stand against the British in 1746. I chose to forgo the guided tour and wandered a bit until I found a nice view and a place to sit and paint. It was not raining so I had to take advantage of the pause. The clouds that gathered and blew across the sky were just epic.
Our first stop on the Isle of Skye was the Eilean Donan Castle. It was so fascinating to tour it and see how the same family that still owns and lives in it from time to time have made it accessible to the public and updated to be comfortable to modern sensibilities. The landscape around the castle was just so grand and dramatic. The clouds and the sunset put on a beautiful show for us. Of course I had to try and paint it, especially since it was still not raining. After that we finally made our way into Broadford on the Isle of Skye.
Exploring the Isle of Skye for the next several days was probably the highlight of the trip for me. The landscape there is so beautiful in a harsh and lonely sort of way. I felt like I had wandered into some of my favorite fantasy books and would not have been surprised to run into and elf or a fairy or a kelpie. The weather was brutal, constantly changing and dramatic, definitely not the kind of August weather we were used to in Utah. But that didn’t stop us from exploring as much as possible, and hiking everywhere. We visited the Fairy Pools, Lealt Falls, hiked the Quiraing, tried to hike the Old Man of Storr but turned around when we almost got blown off the cliffs by the wind and rain, we visited the cute town of Portree, and wandered on the beach near Brother’s Point looking for fossils (we didn’t find any, but we saw the most beautiful rainbow I’ve ever seen in my life, like pictures don’t do the scene justice. The whole world lit up with a beautiful golden glow through the dark clouds with the full bow over the cliffs).
We ended our last full day on the Isle of Skye by driving over to the Neist Point Lighthouse. It was a beautiful hike and scene over the ocean, and it just so happened to not be raining so I decided to paint. I don’t love my painting, but I loved the experience.
After Skye, we drove down to Glencoe where we enjoyed a nice dinner at a country pub and listened to the local cover band. It was a great cultural experience and a beautiful town to stay in. We were able to fit one last hike into the trip, to the Hidden Glen near Glencoe. I have never been more wet in my life. It was a constant downpour while we were hiking, not to mention fording a small river. It was surprisingly easy to get used to, once all of me was drenched, it wasn’t really that cold so it actually was an enjoyable hike, and the Hidden Glen was absolutely beautiful. All the water pouring down the cliffs and the mist hiding the tops of the mountains. It was a magical place.
Despite the enjoyable hike, we ere definitely happy to get dry again. We made a quick pit stop to see castle Stalker, made famous by Monty Python. Then made our way finally to Glasgow.
It was a little bit nice to be in civilization again, mostly because we could finally find restaurants to eat at (There are not very many on Skye and we were not prepared for that). We only saw a little bit of the city, visited some bookstores of course, where we met an extremely friendly cat who claimed my lap immediately when I crouched down to pet it. In Glasgow was where we parted with our friends, they were flying home via Amsterdam from Glasgow but we headed back to Edinburgh for one more night.
We made good use of our finally day in Edinburgh. We tried to fit in as much as we could, mostly the things that we missed at the beginning of the trip due to our terrible flight experience. We visited the Scottish National Gallery and saw some old friends, aka a Monet, a Sorolla, and a Sargent I had attempted to recreate in college. We hiked Arthur’s Seat and saw a comedy show, all in the course of one day. We ended the day with a nice hot meal and a long sleep before heading home in the afternoon.
Scotland is a beautiful place, and one I would love to visit again, with more rain gear and my oil paints next time! Until then, I took so many photos that I can paint from as reference that will have to be enough. Highly recommend giving this magical country a visit, especially if you love the wild places of the earth as much as I do. This landscape is one that feels untamed and wild, even though people have lived there for thousands of years, and is definitely a unique experience. The only thing I can think of that comes close to comparing is backpacking in the Western part of the United States, untamed and wild and full of the most breathtaking views that you have to work hard to get to.
Highland cow grazing at Culloden battlefield