Duke Murdoch's Castle (1)
This year (2019) was the first year I have had a drone on my castle hunting trips to Scotland, and it has made an enormous difference. It took me a little while to learn what I could do with it, the main limiting factor being the transmission range to and from the drone and the handset. Early on I found that trees between me and the drone greatly reduced the transmission range, while as I first discovered here, water has the opposite effect. In the same way that sound waves travel well across water, so too do radio waves. I got increasingly bold at flying across water, as photos to come will show, but this was to be my first attempt, a comparatively short flight of about 650m.
This is Loch Ard, one of magnificent Perthshire's magnificent lochs set amongst the Trossach hills. It lies about 3 miles west of Aberfoyle and is considered to be the source of the River Forth. That is Ben Lomond in the distance, which has been appearing on the horizon of many of the photos I have taken coming up through Ayrshire. Loch Lomond is behind Ben Lomond from here and Beinn Narnain, another Munro, which is on the far (western) side of Loch Lomond, is just visible to Ben Lomond's right.
It is always good to be back in the Highlands!
I have come here because on the nearest of the three islands, that appearing to be sailing in line astern along the southern shore of the loch, at the bottom of the photo, there are the remains of a castle. This side of the loch has no public road along it and to get to the shore as close as possible to the island with the castle on, would require a hike of a couple of miles through rather monotonous forestry plantations. Before getting a drone, I thought this was a castle I would probably never get around to visiting, and I am pleased that I did, because while the remains are scant, it has interesting historical connections.
Where did I fly the drone from? Well out in the middle of the loch there is a muddy brown looking spot. This is actually the top of a very substantial rock outcrop, the loch being close to fifty feet deep at this point. Directly above and beyond this rock (which is called Briedach), beside the road that follows the far shore of the loch, is my campervan!
Duke Murdoch's Castle (1)
This year (2019) was the first year I have had a drone on my castle hunting trips to Scotland, and it has made an enormous difference. It took me a little while to learn what I could do with it, the main limiting factor being the transmission range to and from the drone and the handset. Early on I found that trees between me and the drone greatly reduced the transmission range, while as I first discovered here, water has the opposite effect. In the same way that sound waves travel well across water, so too do radio waves. I got increasingly bold at flying across water, as photos to come will show, but this was to be my first attempt, a comparatively short flight of about 650m.
This is Loch Ard, one of magnificent Perthshire's magnificent lochs set amongst the Trossach hills. It lies about 3 miles west of Aberfoyle and is considered to be the source of the River Forth. That is Ben Lomond in the distance, which has been appearing on the horizon of many of the photos I have taken coming up through Ayrshire. Loch Lomond is behind Ben Lomond from here and Beinn Narnain, another Munro, which is on the far (western) side of Loch Lomond, is just visible to Ben Lomond's right.
It is always good to be back in the Highlands!
I have come here because on the nearest of the three islands, that appearing to be sailing in line astern along the southern shore of the loch, at the bottom of the photo, there are the remains of a castle. This side of the loch has no public road along it and to get to the shore as close as possible to the island with the castle on, would require a hike of a couple of miles through rather monotonous forestry plantations. Before getting a drone, I thought this was a castle I would probably never get around to visiting, and I am pleased that I did, because while the remains are scant, it has interesting historical connections.
Where did I fly the drone from? Well out in the middle of the loch there is a muddy brown looking spot. This is actually the top of a very substantial rock outcrop, the loch being close to fifty feet deep at this point. Directly above and beyond this rock (which is called Briedach), beside the road that follows the far shore of the loch, is my campervan!