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Another one from Birmingham Conservatoire visit with my youngest. Just wish I had my DSLR with me and they were happy for me to take more shots than I did!
Always appreciate your comments and favourites.
The Sun and Winter go very well together. Bright and strong the shadow making light built everything, well photographically at least. This is a great place with excellent cafe and visitor’s centre making a superb human reaction to help wildlife. This place is a reserved world of natural wonders nestled in amongst our modern pressures of life and living that often overlook wildlife and the chance to be calmer and closer to the land, water and sky and also to those that never left the cycle of seasonal lifestyle.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
RSPB Scotland Loch Leven nature reserve
The Sun and Winter go very well together. Bright and strong the shadow making light built everything, well photographically at least. This is a great place with excellent cafe and visitor’s centre making a superb human reaction to help wildlife. This place is a reserved world of natural wonders nestled in amongst our modern pressures of life and living that often overlook wildlife and the chance to be calmer and closer to the land, water and sky and also to those that never left the cycle of seasonal lifestyle.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
RSPB Scotland Loch Leven nature reserve
There is The Golden Hour and The Blue Hour twice each day. Once each in the morning Blue then Gold and then again in the evening this time Gold then Blue and they are never the same and they always have something else within their embrace to give to the image maker. To dance with light is a romance for life and a continual search into illumination for all of the wonders of our creation. Some will define the Blue Hour as that time before sunrise and then again that time after sunset. Modern apps and old fashioned tables delineate the Gold and Blue times for each day, but localised conditions such as cloud cover and other atmospherics can give them bold intensity and also seemingly cancel them and yet without notice the weather and altitude can reignite as well as restrict these colour changes around us as we move through them. With Loch Ness just beyond your terrace, The Falls of Foyers to the South and the gateway of Inverness to the North along the old military road of General Wade then poised here at Boleskine House the Highlands are surely calling and the atmosphere is answering Blue and Gold and then Gold and Blue.
If you are still wondering about the Blue Hour then have in mind that is sometimes mentioned as either Civil, or Nautical Twilight and being evident to the observer when the Sun is between 4° and 6° below the horizon. Please do not worry about the horizon and accurate measurements. The cooling and warming of the light around us is not always precise and definitely not a constant, rather it is another wonderful variable available on some days more and less than others.
There are several pictures of this now mossy cairn created to commemorate and celebrate The Clan MacGillivray Gathering held here in 2002. Further monuments exist in Boleskine Cemetery and in Dunlichity Graveyard as well as at the battle site of Culloden. Strathnairn Heritage Association has just recently bought Dunlichity Church and has plans to highlight the history in a visitors centre exploring the link to blade sharpening marks claimed to be made in part before Culloden in 1746. I list details of plans for 2027 in the description below. If visiting Culloden do look out for the much photographed inscribed stone that informs you when you have reached, “WELL, OF THE DEAD, HERE THE CHIEF OF, THE MACGILLIVRAYS, FELL.”
This House at Boleskine and the surrounding environs are now being highly regraded for links to The Clan Fraser of Lovat and they too have their markers at Culloden and in Boleskine Cemetery. The site popularly known as The Clava Cairns which is the type noted at Balnuaran of Clava next to the River Nairn feature a large stone now looked at which eyes full of Outlander longing, with many people queuing to take a chance at time travel and indulge in a photo opportunity all together and at once.
© PHH Sykes 2025
phhsykes@gmail.com
The Boleskine House Foundation
The Clan MacGillivray International Association 2002
Boleskine House was the location for the 2002 Gathering. The gathering was organised by Ronald MacGillivray and Annette MacGillivray the then owners of Boleskine House with some of their deceased clan members interred with memorials still in view of the house in Boleskine Cemetery. Dunlichity Graveyard close by also hosts prominent MacGillivray graves and memorials with an enclosure extension in 1968. Both Boleskine and Dunlichity Graveyard have marks claimed as being made by musket balls and they share links to Culloden with blade sharpening marks still visible in Dunlichity Graveyard. At the battle site of Culloden a marker still reads, “WELL, OF THE DEAD, HERE THE CHIEF OF, THE MACGILLIVRAYS, FELL.”
This Clan MacGillivray International Association Gathering in 2002 was the successor to two other such events recorded in modern history. The previous gatherings having been held in 1992 and 1997. The stone work memorial cairn still exist in the grounds of Boleskine House. A globe of composed of interlocking metal bands with a piercing dart, or an arrow feature no longer tops the cairn.
Ronald MacGillivray
18th February 2002 Herald and Times archive
www.heraldscotland.com/news/12139093.ronald-macgillivray/
Announcement of Clan MacGillivray International Gathering July Inverness 2027.
“Dear Clan MacGillivray Worldwide,
I’m writing to inform you that our much anticipated Clan MacGillivray International Gathering is officially to be held in Inverness, Scotland in July of 2027.
The dates are set to be Wed 7th July - Sat 10th July and I’ve been in various meetings with our events manager and others for the past few months to facilitate things through to make this happen.
Another very important announcement is that we’ve finally received notice from Office Court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms in Scotland that the Derbhfine of Chiefship for the Clan MacGillivray is to be held in December of 2027. Our Clan Chairman and President will disclose more information on this as it comes through and will continue to be on correspondence with the Lyon Court Secretary representing our Clan MacGillivray matters.
Both these items of news I am most thrilled to share with you all and should come as great excitement to us all as a Clan!
Kindest Regards and with Blessings!
Slainte agus le moran durachdan ‘s Beannachdan!
Iain MacGillivray
Commander of Clan MacGillivray Worldwide”
A shot from a University of Birmingham visit. I love how the building reflects in the window.
Thanks for all your favourites and comments.
The Sun and Winter go very well together. Bright and strong the shadow making light built everything, well photographically at least. This is a great place with excellent cafe and visitor’s centre making a superb human reaction to help wildlife. This place is a reserved world of natural wonders nestled in amongst our modern pressures of life and living that often overlook wildlife and the chance to be calmer and closer to the land, water and sky and also to those that never left the cycle of seasonal lifestyle.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
RSPB Scotland Loch Leven nature reserve
Taken for the BSquare theme Oval on a walk in Henley on Thames.
Many thanks for all your comments and favourites.
built everything, well photographically at least. Great place with excellent cafe and visitors centre. This place is another reserved world of natural wonders nestled in amongst our modern pressures of life and living that often overlooks wildlife and the chance to be calmer and closer to land and water and to those that never left the cycle of seasonal lifestyle.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
RSPB Scotland Loch Leven nature reserve